Lok Janshakti Party's Ram Vilas Paswan walked out of the 5-year relationship with RJD's Lalu Prasad Yadav on Wednesday, citing a complete deadlock.
The party is not against an alliance with the BJP, said Paswan, who has been authorised to take the final call within the next few days. Party leader Rama Singh reiterated on Wednesday: "Our alliance with the RJD is now over."
Ram Vilas Paswan was the first to quit NDA after the Gujarat riots and his Lok Janshakti Party has been in an alliance with the RJD since 2009.
It is reported that the BJP might give the Lok Janshakti Party 8 seats in Bihar’s 40 Lok Sabha constituencies.
Sources said the party was unhappy with the delay in firming up seat-sharing arrangements with the Congress and the RJD. Chirag Paswan, son of LJP chief Ram Vilas Paswan, who also heads the Parliamentary Board, has already said there is "distress" in LJP over the way the seat-sharing issue has been dragging.
Party sources also said there was a trust-deficit between LJP and RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav. LJP feared RJD could field dummy candidates in its seats like last time, party sources said.
BJP MP Shahnawaz Hussain had called on the LJP chief a few days ago while senior BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad had visited Paswan on January 14.
The decision to go with the BJP was reportedly finalised in a meeting of LJP leaders at Paswan’s home two days ago. Congress had dismissed the report as “purely speculative”.
