LJP's crucial meet postponed over ailing senior Paswan

It is believed that LJP president, who sought people's blessings for his party's "Bihar first Bihari first" vision document, may not fight the state assembly polls as part of the National Democratic Alliance.

New Delhi: The Lok Janshakti Party's central parliamentary board meeting was postponed as party president Chirag Paswan had to rush to a hospital to see his ailing father and Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan.

The meeting, which was being considered last before the Bihar assembly elections, could not be held because of the illness of senior Paswan.

It is believed that LJP president, who sought people's blessings for his party's "Bihar first Bihari first" vision document, may not fight the state assembly polls as part of the National Democratic Alliance.

The LJP may contest on 143 seats in the elections to the 243-seat state assembly while not putting up its candidates against BJP nominees, sources said.

Chirag Paswan has met BJP president J P Nadda a few times and had also spoken to Home Minister Amit Shah as the saffron party leadership worked to keep the alliance intact.

The LJP, the sources said, is also unhappy with the seat-sharing arrangement offered to it and is hoping to inflict damage on poll prospects of the JD(U), which has maintained that the LJP is a BJP ally and not its.

The Bihar assembly polls will be held in three phases on October 28, November 3 and November 7, and the counting of votes will take place on November 10.

The nomination process for the first phase, under which 71 of the total 243 seats will go to polls, began from October 1 and will end on October 8.

In 2015, the LJP had contested 42 seats and won two. The JD(U) was then part of the opposition alliance which decisively defeated the NDA.