JD (U) to go solo in select seats of Rajasthan, MP

The Janata Dal (United) announced that they are going to contest for select seats in the upcoming state assembly elections in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh this year on their own.

"JD (U) will contest the election on its own in selected seats in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. Some media reports say we are helping the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) but we are neither supporting them nor opposing them, we are not helping them," JD (U) secretary general KC Tyagi said at a press conference here.

The party further stated that it would not contact the Congress Party unless there is clarity on the latter's stance on the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD).

"Until and unless Congress clears its stand on a corrupt party like RJD, we don't know how to communicate with them any further," he said.

Meanwhile, JD (U)'s Sanjay Jha noted that in the light of the 2019 election, all the power has been given to Nitish to take political decisions.

In the recent times, rifts have emerged between the JD (U) and BJP.

In the 2015 Bihar Assembly elections, JD (U) had won 71 of the 243 seats, while the BJP emerged victorious in 53 seats.

The JD (U) wants the results of the Assembly election, where it had fared much better than the BJP, to be a key factor while deciding how many seats each of the four National Democratic Alliance (NDA) parties in the state will get to contest in the 2019 Lok Sabha election.