PATNA: Issuing an ultimatum to BJP, Bihar’s ruling JD(U) on Wednesday asked the saffron party to take a quick decision on the issue of seat-sharing for Uttar Pradesh assembly polls, otherwise it would release its list of candidates.
Responding to media queries in New Delhi, JD(U) national president Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lalan Singh also said that he has asked senior JD(U) leader and Union steel minister RCP Singh (who is authorized to hold talks with the BJP) to reach to a conclusion as early as possible, otherwise, the JD(U)’s Uttar Pradesh unit has been authorized to release the list of its candidates.
Lalan was responding to media queries in New Delhi after his meeting with senior JD(U) leaders. The meeting was convened to finalise the list of JD(U) candidates for the UP polls and release its first list of candidates.
On being asked about the decisions taken at the meeting, Lalan said his party’s Uttar Pradesh unit has finalized a list of 51 candidates for the UP assembly polls after its state-level meeting in Lucknow on Tuesday. The JD(U)’s national secretary general KC Tyagi participated in the said meeting which was also attended by the party’s UP state president Anoop Singh Patel.
“Both the leaders today reached Delhi and submitted the list of 51 candidates to the party’s national leadership to take a final decision. Union steel minister RCP Singh too had arrived to participate in today’s meeting. He (RCP) informed us that his talk with the BJP over the seat-sharing is still going on. He (RCP) also informed us that he would take a quick decision over the ongoing talk,” Lalan said.
The JD(U) president also said he asked RCP to take a quick decision on the seat-sharing (with the BJP), otherwise, he has authorized the JD(U) state president to release the list of candidates.
To a question, Lalan also said that the JD(U) had earlier submitted a list of 30 seats to the BJP during their initial talk. “But now, the list which has arrived from Lucknow contains the names of 51 assembly constituencies,” he said.
Coming out of the Delhi meeting, RCP said his talk with the BJP over the seat-sharing was in a ‘positive direction.’ “I have complete hope that we will contest the UP polls together, just like we contested the Bihar polls together in 2020,” he said.
To a question, RCP also denied any internal bickering in the JD(U) on the issue of tie-up with the BJP for UP polls.
Earlier on Tuesday, Tyagi, after participating in the party’s state-level meeting in Lucknow, had said that the JD(U) would contest the UP polls alone as the BJP did not reciprocate its offer for seat-sharing.
Tyagi had also said on Tuesday that JD(U) would release its first list of candidates on Wednesday after a meeting of the party’s national leaders in New Delhi.
