Bihar: NCP, HAM to contest Assembly polls on their own

In another jolt to the Grand Alliance, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) announced that they would contest the upcoming Assembly elections on their own.

After a meeting of the party state executive here, NCP state president Naval Kishor Shahi made the announcement. "Our party is not dependent on any coalition," he said.

He rubbished the talk of a grand alliance in the state and called the state government anti-people.

His announcement came on the heels of former Chief Minister and HAM president Jitan Ram Manjhi's declaration to snap ties with the "Mahagathbandhan" and threatening to go solo in the Assembly elections slated to take place next year.

Manjhi alleged that his party was not given its fair share of seats in the Lok Sabha elections. "We did not get our fair share in the grand alliance. We got only three seats in Lok Sabha elections. Either we win or lose, but we will contest election on our own," he said at a press conference here.

Manjhi rejected any possibility of joining the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA), saying that the BJP does not have any agenda and it was involved in communal politics.

NCP and HAM contested the Lok Sabha elections in coalition with RJD, Congress and some other parties but could not win even a single seat.

-ANI