Patna: The Nitish Kumar-led Janata Dal (United) Sunday announced that it will not be a part of the BJP-led NDA outside Bihar and will contest the upcoming assembly polls in four states on its own.
The decision was taken in order to expand the presence of the party and to attain the status of a national recognised party by 2020, party's chief general secretary K C Tyagi told reporters here, after the JD(U)'s national executive meeting-- chaired by party national president Nitish Kumar.
"The JD(U) is not a part of the NDA outside Bihar. We will fight assembly elections in four states on our own strength," Tyagi, who was flanked by two JD(U) general secretaries, Pavan Verma and Sanjay Jha, told reporters here.
"We want to make the JD(U) a national party. The JD(U) is a recognised party in Bihar and Arunachal Pradesh," added the veteran leader, who is also a minister in Nitish Kumar Cabinet.
"We will fight elections in four states of Delhi, Haryana, Jharkhand and Jammu and Kashmir with all our strengths and might. And it will be our endeavour to achieve the status of a national party by 2020," Tyagi said further.
The party, however, is very much a part of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) at the Centre and will also contest the Bihar assembly elections under the banner of the NDA in 2020, Tyagi added.
On the party's stand on Article 370, uniform civil code and Ram Mandir, Tyagi said the outfit has already made its position clear on the issues which is in public domain. "The JD(U)'s stand on Article 370 is well known that we are in favour of it. The party is also in favour of reforms such as uniform civil code but it (party) wants that all the stakeholders should be consulted before taking any final decision. The party chief had written a letter to the Law Commission chairman Justice B S Chauhan in this regard," he said.
The party has always been of the view that the issue of Ram temple be either resolved through dialogue or court order, he said. Even Prime Minister Narendra Modi and RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat have said that the issue should be decided by the court, the JD(U) leader said. "We will not compromise on these issues," Tyagi said.
On the JD(U)'s course of action, if the BJP decided to implement its promise of abrogating Article 370, Tyagi said, "We will oppose the move while being in NDA, the way we did it on the issue of triple talaq (when the party voted against triple talaq bill in the Rajya Sabha)."
When pressed further on the possibility of the JD(U) quitting the NDA government, he reiterated, "We will continue to oppose it while being in NDA... It is your (media) wish that we should part ways."
Apart from making a promise to abrogate Article 370 in its manifesto, BJP chief Amit Shah, now the Union Home Minister, in his election meetings had said that Article 370 would be abrogated if the saffron party came to power on its own.
Asserting that the JD(U) will never be part of the NDA government at the Centre, Tyagi said, "No names from the JD(U) were sent for ministerial berths at any stage as such a situation, where names can be given, never arose."
"The party president thrice refused the offer of symbolic representation in the Union cabinet politely," he added. The JD(U) will continue to support the government at the Centre from outside as it was doing since July 2017 when the Nitish Kumar-led NDA government was formed in the state, he said.
The national executive meeting was attended by several senior party leaders from various states, including the party's vice president Prashant Kishor, Ram Chandra Prasad Singh, K C Tyagi, Sanjay Jha, Bihar JD(U) chief Bashishtha Narayan Singh.
(With PTI inputs)
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