BJP National General Secy to meet disgruntled LJP chief

Amid the acrimonious relationship between the two parties, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) National General Secretary Bhupendra Yadav will meet Union Minister and Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) president Ram Vilas Paswan in Delhi on Thursday, as per sources.

Ram Vilas and LJP leader Chirag Paswan are also scheduled to meet BJP president Amit Shah in the national capital later today.

This comes a day after the LJP, a key NDA ally on Wednesday, made public its unease with the BJP, saying it had digressed to "non-issues" like Ram temple and demanded urgent steps to return to the "real issue" of development.

Chirag, the son of Ram Vilas while being critical of the BJP, praised Congress president Rahul Gandhi, saying he had raised "real" issues of the youth and farmers, which fetched his party victory in the recently-held Assembly elections in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and Chhattisgarh.

Chirag told ANI that the BJP lost the recent Assembly elections because it failed to address the issues of farmers and youth unemployment and emphasized on Ram temple only.

The LJP leader also said the BJP should look into the concerns of its NDA allies, owing to the "delicate" phase the alliance is witnessing.

"The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) is going through a delicate phase after Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and Rashtriya Lok Samata Party (RLSP) pulled out of the alliance. At this point in time, the BJP should look into concerns of the parties who are still in alliance with them before it is too late," he had tweeted in Hindi earlier this week.

Furthermore, Chirag claimed that he had met BJP leaders for discussing matters pertaining to seat sharing in the assembly, but nothing substantial was achieved.

"We spoke to BJP leader about the seat share but nothing substantial has come out till now. It is in their interest to ensure the decisions in this matter are taken in the right direction, well in time, otherwise, they will have to bear the damages," he had written on the micro-blogging site.