By Manoj Pathak

Patna, Jul 11 (IANS): Speculation is rife in Bihar after Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) chief Chirag Paswan supported Rashtriya Janata Dal's (RJD) Tejashwi Yadav over the issue of holding Assembly elections during corona times.

Chirag, who has differences with Janata Dal (United), has supported Tejashwi by saying that the Bihar Assembly elections should not be conducted in the time of a pandemic. The question that arises now is whether Chirag is getting closer to the leaders of the Grand Alliance.

Chirag has many times criticized the Bihar government in public. He had removed the LJP's Munger district president from the post only because he had spoken in the media about 'uniting the NDA'.

According to sources, Chirag is upset with the seat sharing formula of the NDA. It is believed that Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is very angry with Chirag and is in favour of giving only 25 to 30 seats to the LJP in the coming Bihar Assembly elections. On the other hand Chirag is demanding at least 42 seats.

Chirag tried to send a message to the Bharatiya Janata Party and the JDU a day earlier by tweeting that if he does not get a respectable number of seats, he can take any decision.

In a tweet Chirag had said, the LJP is fully prepared for the state Assembly elections.

Tejashwi wants to take advantage of this anger of Chirag. A few days ago, when Tejashwi was asked a question about it, he said that if there is such an issue it will definitely be considered.

Tejashwi had also demanded that elections not be held during the corona period.

RJD spokesperson Mrityunjay Tiwari also said that in politics there is no enemy nor friend.

He said, "Chirag ji feels that Nitish Kumar has cheated Bihar and if he comes to the Grand Alliance, he is welcome."

Pappu Yadav, the head of the Jan Adhikar Party, has also demanded that there should be a Dalit Chief Minister in Bihar.

The BJP does not appear to support any such statement. Party spokesperson Nikhil Anand said the BJP is a party working on the foundations of organization and ideology that has set an example of nationwide public service in the time of the coronavirus. The BJP does not do politics keeping elections in mind, but because of the strength of its organization and ideology, it is ready for elections all the time.

He said every political party is free to express its views about elections but every subject related to elections is a matter for the Election Commission to decide. The BJP honours an important institution like the Election Commission and will welcome every decision of the Commission regarding the impending Assembly polls in October-November.