Amit Shah in Bihar: BJP president says alliance with JD(U) will continue for 2019 Lok Sabha polls

BJP president Amit Shah, making his first visit to Bihar since Chief Minister Nitish Kumar returned to the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), said on Thursday that the alliance with JD(U) will continue for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, according to several media reports.

The BJP president confirmed the decision at a meeting with the Bihar state party members, who have been tasked with outreach programmes, and assessed the party’s expansion strategy in the state,  ANI  reported.

बिहार प्रदेश के विस्तारकों के साथ बैठक की और संगठन विस्तार की समीक्षा कर विभिन्न विषयों पर चर्चा की। pic.twitter.com/IT7h9yGiEP

— Amit Shah (@AmitShah) July 12, 2018

पटना में बिहार के मुख्यमंत्री व NDA में हमारे साथी, श्री @NitishKumar जी से भेंट की। pic.twitter.com/eH4giuF2HZ

— Amit Shah (@AmitShah) July 12, 2018

Earlier Thursday, Shah had a brief meeting with Nitish over breakfast. The two leaders are understood to have discussed the prevailing political situation in view of the Lok Sabha polls due next year. Shah arrived from Ranchi on Thuesday morning and was given a warm welcome at the airport by BJP workers and senior leaders, including party state president Nityanand Rai.

This is the BJP chief’s first visit to the state since the dramatic political realignment of last year when Kumar, the JD(U) national president, walked out of the Grand Alliance which included the RJD and the Congress, and returned to the NDA.

The JD(U) is likely expecting an arrangement similar to the one it had with the RJD for the 2015 Assembly elections. While the parties are in alliance in Bihar, Nitish hasn’t yet joined the NDA at the Centre.

The NDA, which won 31 seats in Bihar, is witnessing claims and counter-claims made by leaders of NDA constituents after JD(U) returned to its fold. Old partners — BJP, LJP and RLSP — had won 22, 6 and 3 seats respectively from Bihar, while JD(U) which had fought separately with the Left parties, managed only two seats in the last parliamentary poll in 2014. With the two parties joining hands, however, the fresh allotment of seats among partners seems to be a difficult task.

With inputs from PTI