In another setback, the Bhartiya Janata Party has lost its National Democratic Alliance (NDA) ally Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) which decided to fight the Jharkhand Assembly polls alone.

Sharing the news of contesting alone, Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan’s son, Chirag Paswan, who recently took over the reins of the party said, “The decision to contest election in Jharkhand was to be taken by the party’s state unit. And the state unit of the LJP has decided to contest on 50 seats independently. By today evening the party will release the first list of candidates.”

Though the LJP was keen for an alliance with the BJP, the saffron party was reluctant as its leaders believed that the regional party did not have much to offer electorally in the state. The BJP and the LJP are allies in neighbouring Bihar.

Prior to this, another BJP ally in Bihar, the Janata Dal (United) led by Nitish Kumar, had earlier declared already that it will contest Jharkhand polls alone.

Chirag Paswan made it clear that the party is not satisfied with the BJP as it failed to respond to its demand for six seats, reported in media. Paswan even told that his party was ready to sacrifice some seats but he still did not get any response from ally BJP.

The LJP leader said that the party’s Jharkhand unit has been for contesting the assembly polls on its own as the party’s organisation has become stronger and it has better candidates than before.

The state unit has sent a list of 37 seats to the party’s central office which it wants to contest, Paswan said.

The 81-member Jharkhand Assembly will vote in five phases starting from November 30 to December 20. Counting of votes will take place on December 23.