Battle for UP: Friends in Bihar, foes in UP

They are friends in Bihar and now foes in Uttar Pradesh.

The presence of two political parties from Bihar in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections are taking a toll on their friendship with the BJP in Bihar.

The parties, Janata Dal (United) and Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP), are part of the ruling NDA government in Bihar. Both are contesting the UP elections alone after the BJP refused an alliance with them.

Though JD(U) national spokesperson K.C. Tyagi insisted that this will not affect the alliance in Bihar, he said that his party was disappointed and was contesting the UP elections alone.

The JD(U) has declared a list of 20 candidates. It will contest a total of 50 seats with focus on central and eastern Uttar Pradesh, said state party president Anup Singh Patel.

Union minister and senior JD(U) leader R.C.P. Singh was in talks with the top leaders of BJP to stitch up an alliance for the UP Assembly elections but it did not materialise.

Singh's name is now missing from the list of JD (U)'s star campaigners in UP.

Patel refused to comment on this. "Only the top leadership can say something on this," he said.

VIP, a Nishad-centric party, had also made an attempt to form an alliance with the BJP, riding on the hope that being a part of NDA in Bihar will make it easy for it. However, that did not work out either. In fact, BJP, in Uttar Pradesh, is in alliance with the Nishad Party, which represents the community.

VIP attacked national president of Nishad Party Sanjay Nishad on several occasions for "using sentiments of the community he represents for his and his family's growth".

The VIP is going full steam to contest the polls and is using Phoolan Devi's legacy to claim Nishad votes. The party is also targeting the BJP indirectly and the Nishad Party directly for the plight of the Nishad community in the state.