LJP to contest all seats in West Bengal, Assam Assembly elections

New Delhi, Jan 30: Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) has decided to contest all seats in West Bengal and Assam in the upcoming Assembly elections.

"Lok Janshakti Party has decided to contest all seats in West Bengal and Assam in the ensuing elections, after considering the view of State units that it will help in expanding and strengthening Party's base," said Abdul Khaliq, LJP Secretary-General.

The BJP had invited Lok Janshakti Party president Chirag Paswan to attend the NDA meeting on Saturday to discuss the ruling bloc's agenda for the Budget session of Parliament, but the JD(U)'s protest to the move is likely to have prompted him to skip the event.

Paswan did not attend the virtual meeting due to health reasons, and noted he had also skipped the all-party meet held earlier in the day.

The invite to Paswan from Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi to the meeting of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its allies assumes significance as this made it clear that the LJP remains a member of the National Democratic Alliance despite walking out of the alliance in Bihar during the state assembly polls.

The LJP had walked out of the NDA in Bihar last year due to its opposition to Nitish Kumar and contested the state assembly polls on its own. It put up candidates in all the seats where the JD(U) was in the fray while largely spared the BJP except for a few seats.

Though the LJP could win only one seat in the Bihar polls, it inflicted serious damage on the JD(U), whose tally fell to 43 from 71, triggering a backlash from Kumar's party, with some of its leaders questioning if Paswan could still be in the NDA at the Centre.

A vocal supporter of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Paswan has maintained that he remains an ally of the BJP at the Centre.