The Janata Dal(U) announced here on Wednesday it would not contest the Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls or support any party. “To protect the constituency of secular forces and to combat communal forces, we have taken the decision not to contest the Assembly elections in U.P.,” K.C. Tyagi, principal general secretary of the party, said. Mr. Tyagi, along with other senior JD(U) leaders R.C.P. Singh and Rajiv Ranjan Singh, alias Lalan Singh, was addressing presspersons at the party’s headquarters here. In the 2012 U.P. Assembly elections, the JD(U) contested 219 seats, but could not win even one. Most of its candidates lost their deposits. When prodded further, Mr. Tyagi said, “Despite our consistent effort, unfortunately, no Bihar-like broad political coalition emerged in U.P.; so we decided to stay away from the U.P. poll.” However, his party colleague and Bihar Minister of Water Resources, Rajiv Ranjan Singh, said, “We will pray from here in Patna that the secular forces would win the poll there in U.P.” Asked if JD(U) president and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar would go to U.P. for campaigning, if he gets an invitation from Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, Mr. Singh said, “No, Nitish Kumar will not go there.”
