Final call on BJP-LJP tie-up for UP election soon: Chirag Paswan

Bengaluru: Expressing Lok Janshakti Party’s willingness to fight the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections next year as part of National Democratic Alliance (NDA), party leader Chirag Paswan said the final call over the issue would soon be taken by BJP.

“LJP is part of NDA at the Centre and we would want to contest the UP elections as part of the same alliance,” he told PTI in Bengaluru. “Having said that, BJP is the bigger alliance partner, and they are the ones who have to take a final call over the issue. We will be meeting Amit Shahji soon and take a final call,” he said.

Chirag, son of LJP founder and Union food and consumer affairs minister Ram Vilas Paswan, also said the party definitely wants to contest UP elections, either as part of NDA or independently.

Asked whether the decision to contest elections in UP as part of NDA was taken in view of the election results in Assam and other states, Chirag said, “Our alliance has performed really well. We managed to get into the North-East and form our government in Assam. That is an achievement for our alliance.”

“We also performed well down south compared to our previous results, which is the reason why we want to continue the alliance.” he said.

On accepting Rajnath Singh as the chief ministerial candidate, Paswan said, as a partner of NDA, his party will follow whatever decision BJP makes in this regard. “As an honest ally we will follow whatever decision BJP takes. Whether they want to project the chief ministerial candidate or not, we are okay with that,” he said.