BTP Forms Pre-Poll Alliance With JD (U) For Gujarat Polls; Nitish Kumar To Campaign

Bihar Chief Minister and JD(U) leader Nitish Kumar will campaign in Gujarat, said Vasava. There is no clarity about the number of seats the JD(U) would contest in the elections to the 182-member Assembly scheduled to be held on December 1 and 5.

"The BTP and the JD(U) are old friends and that is why we have decided to enter into a pre-poll alliance. We will help them and they will help us. The Bihar CM (Nitish Kumar) will visit Gujarat for poll campaigning. We aim to uproot the present (BJP) regime," BTP founder Vasava told reporters.

Notably, the development came days after the BTP announced its first list of candidates for 12 Assembly segments, including nine seats reserved for Scheduled Tribe (ST). Last September, the BTP had broken its four-month-old pre-poll tie-up with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) alleging the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has sent Arvind Kejriwal to defeat the BTP.

In the current Assembly, the BTP has two MLAs. While Chhotu Vasava represents the Jhagadia seat in Bharuch, his son and BTP's national president Mahesh Vasava is the MLA from Dediapadain the Narmada district.

"Chhotubhai was JD(U)'s state president in the past. We are brothers who have once again come together. Apart from Nitish Kumar, JD(U) president Lalan Singh and senior leader KC Tyagi will also address poll rallies in Gujarat. The ticket distribution will be finalised in days to come," said Gujarat JD(U) president Vishwajeet Singh.

Chhotu Vasava, a veteran tribal leader, had been with JD(U) from 1990 to 2017. He left the party and formed BTP ahead of the 2017 Assembly elections after Nitish Kumar allied with the BJP.

He had earlier formed a poll alliance with Asaduddin Owaisi-led AIMIM ahead of the Gujarat panchayat polls in 2020 and with AAP this year. However, Vasava snapped ties with AAP claiming Kejriwal is working at the behest of the BJP. 

(With PTI Inputs)