The Lok Janshakti Party may play a spoilsport for the Nitish Kumar-led JD(U), an ally of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance, in the upcoming Assembly elections in the state.
Surveys done by various agencies in the state have allegedly revealed that Nitish’s popularity among the voters has gone down considerably, with some experts saying the CM has become a liability for the BJP in this election. Interestingly, Nitish Kumar’s pictures are not even there on BJP advertisements in newspapers ahead of elections, giving rise to a lot of speculations.
However, BJP state president Sanjay Jaiswal maintains that the BJP-led NDA is fighting the elections under the leadership of Nitish Kumar, who is the chief ministerial candidate of the alliance.
Irrespective of what NDA allies may say, the situation for the JD-U seems to have worsened after LJP leader Chirag Paswan moved away from the NDA in Bihar. The LJP fielded candidates in 136 of the 243 constituencies, though the nominations of its nominees in Makhdoompur and Phulwari were rejected. Most of these 134 nominees are now pitted against the JD-U even as others are facing BJP rivals in Gobindganj, Lalganj, Bhagalpur, Raghopur, Rosara, and Narkatiyaganj.
LJP spokesperson Ashraf Ansari said that while Gobindganj and Lalganj have sitting MLAs from his party, there is a ‘friendly match’ with the BJP in other seats. He claimed that the LJP will form the next government in Bihar along with the BJP.
Chirag Paswan too has been appealing to the voters to vote for the BJP in Assembly segments in which his party is not in the fray.
It is being said that the LJP wishes to bag at least 10-15 seats by taking advantage of the Narandra Modi factor in the Assembly elections and will play an important role in the formation of any future government if the JD-U and BJP failed to bag a simple majority of 122 seats on their own.
The elections for 243 Assembly seats will be held in three phases—for 71 seats on 28 October, for 94 seats on 3 November, and remaining 78 on 7 November. The results will be announced on 10 November.