The Lok Janshakti Party (LJP), led by Union minister Ram Vilas Paswan, may be an ally in the Modi-led government at the Centre but the alliance will not extend to Uttar Pradesh.
The Lok Janshakti Party (LJP), led by Union minister Ram Vilas Paswan, may be an ally in the Modi-led government at the Centre but the alliance will not extend to Uttar Pradesh.
The BJP has already announced its alliances with two parties — the Apna Dal (Anupriya faction) and the Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party — in Uttar Pradesh and if sources are to be believed, the “BJP has no room” for more allies.
Significantly, though the LJP was a part of the NDA alliance in 2014 too, the BJP did not give any seats to it in UP though it gave two seats to Apna Dal.
A senior BJP leader said that seats for LJP were not under consideration since the party did not have any base in UP.
“The LJP had a base in Bihar and we contested with them but UP is another issue and for us, each seat here matters. We cannot please allies and waste our seats,” the senior party functionary added. The LJP, which has been making a bid for dalit votes in UP for the past several years, could help the BJP in cutting into Bahujan Samaj Party’s votes.
“We are capable of wooing the dalit vote on our own. We do not want to piggyback on another party’s shoulders,” the leader said. Union minister Ram Vilas Paswan is, apparently, aware of the reluctance of the BJP to give him space and has asked his party workers to prepare for elections.
An LJP leader in Lucknow said, “We are working on our own and it does not seem that BJP will give us any seats. It will be a friendly fight between us and our workers are preparing for the polls.” LJP workers are, nevertheless, upset at the attitude of the BJP.
“The BJP is ready to ally with the Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party (SBSP) which has never won even a single election and is known for its bargaining skills and also with the Apna Dal, a two-member party that has already split, but when it comes to trustworthy allies like the LJP, the BJP chooses to ignore us,” said a party worker.
The Lok Janshakti Party, meanwhile, is preparing for its election campaign in Uttar Pradesh and its workers are busy identifying seats and working out caste equations.
Party workers are now waiting for the final word from its president Ram Vilas Paswan regarding the final number of seats that the party could contest.
