NDA will fight Bihar Assembly polls under Nitish’s leadership — Nadda

Patna, Aug. 24 (IANS): BJP President J.P. Nadda on Sunday said that his party will fight upcoming Assembly election in Bihar, along with the Janata Dal-United (JD-U) and the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP), under the leadership of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.

Nadda’s statement comes at a time when LJP President Chirag Paswan has taken a tough stand against Nitish Kumar, the JD-U chief.

Paswan, in a statement, said that he will raise issues related to the common people of state. This is also seen as a bid to exert pressure on the JD-U and the BJP to claim more seats to contest.

Chirag Paswan and his father Ram Vilas Paswan are the among prominent Dalit leaders in Bihar, exerting influence in Hajipur, Saran, Chapra and some other key constituencies in north and central Bihar.

As per January 2020, Bihar has total 7,21,40,945 voters, and 15 per cent of them belong to Dalit and Mahadalit communities. Paswan also claims to be leader of Muslim community, which forms 17 per cent of the electorate.

Addressing the party’s Bihar working committee via video conferencing, Nadda said that all the three alliance partners will fight Bihar polls together and emerge victorious.

“Bihar has the capacity to establish itself in the country. The silk industry of Bhagalpur, Litchi farming of Muzaffarpur, paintings of Madhubani, Makhana (food) of Darbhanga have potential to establish themselves as export hubs. We have to become vocal for local to become self-reliant,” he said. “The opposition parties (Mahagathbandhan) is visionless at the moment. Hence, voters of Bihar expect better future only from NDA. The people of Bihar are labourious and have potential to change the status of the state,” he added.