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Journalism of Courage
Having failed to strike an alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party, the Janata Dal (United) has decided to contest the Uttar Pradesh polls alone. The party said its leaders will now meet in Lucknow on January 18 to take a call on its candidates.
“We waited till last moments for alliance with BJP,” JD (U) national spokesperson KC Tyagi told The Indian Express. “Our party colleague and Union minister RCP Singh had been in talks with top BJP leaders. But it did not work out. We have now decided to go it all alone in UP.”
The JD(U) had submitted to the BJP a list of 31 candidates as a proposal to fight the polls jointly, but said the ruling party had not responded to the offer. Tyagi said although the JD(U) was not adamant on contesting on a specific number of seats, it did not get any “concrete word” from BJP.
Recently, while releasing its first list of candidates, the BJP, which has an alliance with the JD(U) in neighbouring Bihar, had not named the party as its partner for the UP polls.
Tyagi, however, said the decision to go alone in UP will not affect the alliance between the two parties in Bihar.
“It should not happen as we had contested alone in Jharkhand (too). We are an independent party and would try to work towards our growth and expansion,” Tyagi said.
Asked what the JD(U)’s line of attack against the BJP in the UP polls would be, Tyagi said: “We will talk about the Bihar model of governance and social empowerment. UP has not achieved the kind of social empowerment we have achieved in Bihar”.
Tyagi said in UP, the BJP “surely” has been on a back foot because of the farmers’ agitation despite the Centre withdrawing the three controversial farm laws.
Meanwhile, Bihar BJP president Sanjay Jaiswal attacked the JD (U) for poor implementation of the liquor law in Bihar, where 11 people have died in the last two days after allegedly consuming hooch.
“The intention behind the liquor law may well be good but there are surely problems with its implementation,” said Jaiswal, also referring to the two hooch tragedies in Gopalganj and West Champaran last November in which 30 people had died.
