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National Democratic Alliance constituent and ruling party in Bihar the Janata Dal-United has said it is prepared to fight the next Lok Sabha elections alone in the state if the situation demands and its alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party ceases to exist.
Speaking to PTI on the eve of JD-U rally in Delhi, dubbed by many as a show of strength, party general secretary and spokesperson Shivanand Tiwary said the JD-U wanted the alliance to continue but at the same time the party was prepared "to contest all the seats with all our strength".
"Any party which says they are not ready to fight all the seats alone is a stupid party which is not confident of its electoral and organisational strength," he said.
Ex-chief of BJP Bihar CP Thakur had recently said that his party was preparing to contest all the parliamentary seats in Bihar.
Tiwary said, "Yes, recently we heard several BJP leaders in Bihar had said they are preparing to contest all the 40 seats in Bihar. In a democratic system, every party has a right to expand its base including them (BJP) and we don't have a problem with that. We are also prepared to contest all the seats with all our strength if the BJP says so, though I feel, it's a hypothetical question as we would like to see the 17 year-old alliance to continue despite our difficulties."
Thakur's opinion had been seconded by several other BJP leaders like Bihar minister Giriraj Singh and Rameshwar Chaurasia who are known-supporters of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi. The claim was, however, disputed by Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Modi who like Nitish Kumar has a couple of times in the past expressed reservations about Narendra Modi's projection as PM candidate and is strictly in favour of continuation of the alliance.
Political observers see the March 17 rally by the JD-U in Delhi for the special status demand as a show of strength aimed at winning maximum parliamentary seats in Bihar.