On Monday the national executive of ruling Janata Dal (United) in Bihar expressed the party’s view on marking its national presence by contesting the 2019 Lok Sabha elections in several states. Further made it clear that their alliance with the BJP is limited to only Bihar.
It was speculated that in the meeting, the party would announce the likely seats to be contested by the JD(U), the issue was not taken up though.
“The specific seats for the three alliance partners would be announced shortly,” said RCP Singh, JD(U) national general secretary and Rajya Sabha member.
JD(U)’s national general secretary KC Tyagi said there was a consensus on the need for the party to explore options for expanding its presence outside Bihar.
However, the meeting gave its nod for the formation of a three-member committee, comprising KC Tyagi, RCP Singh and Prashant Kishor, for holding preliminary talks with the heads of respective state units for evaluating prospects and apprising the chief minister on the issue.
JD(U)’s stand on Citizenship Amendment Bill and its opposition to its passage in the Rajya Sabha has brought the party in recognition in states like Assam, Arunachal Pradesh and Manipur, Tyagi claimed.
“While JD(U) national president had announced the candidate for lone LS seat from Lakshadweep, we will explore the option of contesting some of the seats in Northeast, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Rajasthan and Chattisgarh,” he said.
However, party’s electoral reach in Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Karnataka and Gujarat in assembly elections had not been very fruitful.
In Nagaland, the party won one seat.
In order to qualify as a national party, the Election Commission’s criteria requires a party to get at least 6% of the votes from a minimum of four states, or 2% of the total seats in the Lok Sabha from at least three states, or be recognised as a state party in at least four different states.
Also, Tyagi said the party’s views on disputed issues, like that of Article-35A, Article-370 and Ramjanambhoomi remained static.
He said, “We are opposed to any murmur for the dilution of Article 370 and 35A in J&K and believe that SC verdict on Ramjanambhoomi was the only way forward as the prospect of resolution through negotiation has dimmed completely.”
Tyagi also assured that their party would not compromise its stand with any attempt to dilute existing quotas.
He said, “JD(U) president Ntish Kumar is a strong votary for reservation in judiciary as he believes it to be an instrument for social change.”