Nitish Kumar's JD (U) to contest election outside Bihar to acquire status of national party

After JD (U)’s national executive meeting under the leadership of Chief Minister and JD (U) president Nitish Kumar here, JD (U) general secretary KC Tyagi told newspersons at the state party headquarters that discussions were held for formulating strategy to ensure victory of NDA candidates on all 40 seats.

He said Samata Party, former avatar of JD (U) was accorded the status of national party and so it was necessary that JD (U) should contest election outside Bihar to acquire the status of national party.

Mr Tyagi said that JD (U) had decided to contest elections in Manipur, Assam and other north eastern states under the same principle.

JD (U) will field strong candidates in these states, he added.

The JD (U) general secretary aid that his party`s alliance with BJP was confined to Bihar and so his party was independent to contest elections in other states.

He said JD (U) was also independent as far as its principles were concerned, albeit its principles might differ with those of NDA`s other allies.

To a query, Mr Tyagi said that his party was opposed to abolition of section 370 in Jammu and Kashmir and any interference with section 35 A. He said section 370 should not be abolished and Ram temple dispute should be settled either through a consensus or a court order.

“My party is firm on its stand on these issues,” he added.

As it is, NDA`s allies have already distributed all 40 Lok Sabha seats for the upcoming election and under the seat sharing formula, BJP and JD (U) will contest 17 seats each and LJP will field its candidates on remaining six seats.

The NDA`s allies, however, have yet to identify seats on which they intend to field candidates.