Bihar Assembly Polls: LJP holds crucial meeting amid rift with JD(U)

Amid the worsening ties with the Nitish Kumar-led Janata Dal (United), Ramvilas Paswan's Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) is holding a crucial meeting to discuss its strategy for the upcoming Bihar Assembly elections 2020. The key agenda of the meet would be deciding whether to field candidates against the JD(U) in the electoral battle.

New Delhi: The state parliamentary board meeting of the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) is underway for the upcoming Bihar assembly elections.

Amid the party's differences with the Janata Dal (United), LJP is chairing a meeting with senior party leaders to review its strategy for the Bihar polls.

The key agenda of the meet would be deciding whether to field candidates against the JD(U) in the electoral battle.

The BJP, JDU and the LJP are allies in Bihar, but an increasing rift between the two regional parties in the state has made the task of seat-distribution among them a complex exercise with the BJP seen to be working to smoothen the ties among its partners.

Speculations are rife that the LJP is negotiating for more seats and other post-election agreements, failing which it could exit the alliance.

It is to be noted that in the last assembly election, the LJP had won only two of the 42 seats it had contested. The party made up for the electoral loss in 2019 by winning six Lok Sabha seats.

The LJP is also trying to woo the voters by pitting a "younger face" against Nitish Kumar, who is battling anti-incumbency.

The BJP has already announced that the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) will fight the polls under JD(U) president and Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's leadership.

The Bihar Assembly polls are likely to be held this year in October-November but the Election Commission of India (ECI) is yet to make any official announcement in this regard.