The Bharatiya Janta Party has decided to give Giridih Lok Sabha seat to coalition partner AJSU Party. The decision has been taken in the BJP parliamentary board meeting in Delhi late on Friday evening. BJP national president Amit Shah, State in charge of BJP Mangal Pandey, party’s national General Secretary Bhupendra Yadav among others were present in the neeting.
Yadav said after the meeting that the BJP and the AJSU party have decided to fight the general elections in Jharkhand on 13-1 formula, where the BJP will contest elections on 13 seats and the AJSU party will fight for one seat. “We will go to Jharkhand as a strong coalition and will together toil for all 14 seats,” he said.
“The announcement of one seat (for AJSU) will be done after sometime by both the parties. AJSU party national president Sudesh Mahto has met BJP president Amit Shah and they have pledged to win all the seats of the State in the Lok Sabha elections,” said Yadav without disclosing the name of the constituency given to AJSU Party.
However, AJSU Party spokesperson Dev Sharan Bhagat today said that the deal has been sealed for Giridih Lok Sabha constituency. “We welcome the decision taken at the national level. The Giridih seat has been given to us. We will take this decision to the people of the State and fight the elections,” he said.
State general secretary of BJP Deepak Prakash said that the BJP and AJSU Party have a natural coalition. “We have a strong coalition as both the parties have fought for separate Jharkhand. After formation of the State the AJSU party has been working for the development of Jharkhand by being a part of the NDA. Our coalition is there and will be there for general elections,” said he.
Notably, The AJSU party has been eyeing three seats in the general elections and has already appointed election in charges for the same. The party was looking for Giridih, Hazaribagh and Koderma seats and is still bargaining for Hazaribagh, said sources.
Also, this is for the first time BJP and AJSU will fight the General Elections together. In 2014 Lok Sabha elections the AJSU party had contested alone and could not register a win. Party chief Sudesh Mahto had lost the elections from Ranchi seat against BJP’s Ram Tahal Chaudhary.
On the Giridih seat being given to AJSU party, BJP insiders said that the tussle between five times MP Ravindra Pandey and Baghmara MLA Dhullu Mahto had come to public domain and was being noted by the BJP high command. They said that the party has taken a strong step against indiscipline this time.