'BJP should keep allies in good humour by maintaining dialogue': JDU

Ahead of Jharkhand Assembly polls, Janata Dal United (JDU) has opined that BJP should keep the doors of dialogue open for its allies even if it is not able to accommodate the terms proposed by its allies. Ashok Chaudhary, a leader of JDU which is an alliance partner of BJP in Bihar said, "BJP should keep its allies in good humor. Even if they are not giving seats to allies like the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP), they should keep the doors of dialogue open. There will be no impact of Maharashtra politics on NDA in Bihar. We have very friendly relations with BJP here."

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LJP to contest election independently

The LJP which was an ally of BJP has announced on Tuesday that it will be contesting the upcoming elections on its own. The 81-member Jharkhand Assembly will go to polls in five phases between November 30 and December 20 and the votes will be counted on December 23. The newly-appointed president of the party, Chirag Paswan, took to Twitter to announce the decision and said that LJP will contest elections alone on 50 seats.

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The statement by JDU leader Ashok Chaudhary comes at a time when there is a nearly 20-day long power struggle in Maharashtra between the BJP and alliance partner Shiv Sena with the latter falling out of the alliance and approaching rival Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Indian National Congress for government formation in the state. However, the negotiations between NCP and Shiv Sena have not been successful and the governor of Maharashtra Bhagat Singh Koshyari has called for president's rule that received the central cabinet's nod and was implemented from November 12.

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NCP president Sharad Pawar on Tuesday said his party and ally Congress will discuss and evolve a consensus on what should be the policies and programs if the Shiv Sena was to be supported. Congress leader Ahmed Patel insisted that no final decision can be taken without the formulation of a common minimum program by the three parties. Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray said his party and the Congress-NCP have different views on several issues, and that they will work out and stake a claim for government formation. 

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