‘LJP yet to take call on alliance with BJP in UP, Punjab polls’

Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) leader Chirag Paswan on Monday said his party is yet to decide on alliance with BJP in the coming Uttar Pradesh and Punjab elections.

“Soon we will be having elections in two of the major states of the country- Uttar Pradesh and Punjab. We have strong organisational set up in these states now. We are yet to take a call whether the party will be contesting with alliance, I mean with BJP,” Chirag Paswan told reporters here.

He said “we are part of NDA at the central level, but are yet to finalise seat sharing and all the formalities.”

A Lok Sabha member, Chirag is the son of LJP chief and Union Food and Consumer Affairs Minister Ram Vilas Paswan. Responding to a question on party expansion the South, he said it plans to expand across the country.

“Down south in Tamil Nadu our party contested in elections,” he said, adding they plan to expand in Karnataka. “We want to build the party from the grass root level.”

Speaking on “lawlessness” in Bihar, Party chief Ram Vilas Paswan said in other states development is the top agenda and caste comes later, but in Bihar it is opposite.

Fatehgarh Sahib: Punjab unit of Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) said the party will contest on all 117 seats in 2017 Assembly polls on its own. “We have started a door-to-door campaign and visit every village and house under a campaign to bring BSP to power and save Punjab,” BSP Punjab unit chief Avtar Singh Karimpuri said.