Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls: BJP will not join hands with RLD for 2017 elections

Clearing the rumours over a tie-up with Ajit Singh's Rashtriya Lok Dal, Uttar Pradesh Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) president Keshav Prasad Maurya on 15 May ruled out any alliance for the 2017 Assembly elections.

Maurya asserted that the BJP would fight on its own and win two-thirds majority. His remarks come in the backdrop of reports that the BJP was open to an alliance with the Jat leader to consolidate anti-Samajwadi Party and anti-Bahujan Samaj Party votes.

Maurya said the BJP will fight the polls on the plank of development and that the 'Ram temple' will not be a poll issue. The "misgovernance" under Samajwadi Party dispensation coupled with "rampant corruption and poor law and order", he said, will be major issues.

Maurya suggested that the parties willing to support BJP could contest the election on its lotus symbol.

"We don't need any alliance. We are going to fight with full strength. We will come to power with a big majority without any alliance. "Lotus had bloomed in 73 (out of 80) Lok Sabha seats and now I see BJP getting 265 plus seats in the assembly polls. This is not merely a statement but reality," he said.

RLD's Singh was also being wooed by Bihar CM Nitish Kumar, who wanted to merge the JD(U) with the RLD.

BJP chief Amit Shah had appointed Maurya, a first time Lok Sabha member from an OBC community, as the state chief in April this year, hoping to revive a social alliance of upper castes and a chunk of backward class voters that kept the party ahead of its rivals for much of the 1990s. Maurya, who has had a stint in Vishwa Hindu Parishad, is seen as a champion of the Hindutva agenda.

Speaking about BJP's chief minesterial candidate, he said any decision in this regard will be taken by the party's central leadership.

Party leaders are crisscrossing the state to build its campaign and its cadres observed Panchayati Raj Day on April 24 in over 35,600 villages where they interacted with the locals.

The remaining about 54,000 villages will be covered by party workers by 26 May, when the Modi government celebrates its two years in office.

-With inputs from PTI