JD(U) in talks with BJP over Delhi assembly polls

The Janata Dal (United) headed by Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is exploring a tie-up with the BJP for the upcoming assembly polls in Delhi, a senior leader said here on Wednesday.

"I am in talks with the BJP leadership. Once things finalised, we will be in a position to share details like seat-sharing," JD (U) national general secretary Sanjay Jha disclosed this at a function held to mark Makar Sankranti here.

The JD(U) and the BJP are running a coalition government in Bihar since 2005, barring around a year half when the former was in power with the RJD and the Congress in the state.

The JD (U) had dumped its alliance partners in July 2017, forming the state government in alliance with the BJP again.

At its last national executive held a year ago, the JD (U) had declared that it would go alone in the assembly polls in Haryana, Jharkhand and Delhi.

The party did contest alone in Haryana and Jharkhand, where it faced a rout, getting less than one per cent of the total polled votes.

Jha also took a swipe at the Rashtriya Janata Dal, headed by Lalu Prasad Yadav, which is exploring a tie-up with the Congress in Delhi.

"The RJD must tell the people of Delhi about its misrule in Bihar, which had forced millions of people from the state to migrate elsewhere and made them objects of ridicule," said Jha, who is a close confidante of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.

Meanwhile, AICC in-charge for Bihar Shaktisinh Gohil said at a separate function that there was no problem in their alliance with the RJD.

But there are serious problems between the BJP and the JD(U), he said.

"We should read the fine print when (Home Minister) Amit Shah says the assembly polls will be fought under Nitish Kumar's leadership but refrains from saying that the JD(U) national president will be the chief minister in the event of the NDA victory," he said.

"The BJP is known not just dump but bury alive its allies once they outlive their utility. Nitish Kumar will be treated with the same ruthlessness," Gohil alleged.