JD-U wants to continue alliance with BJP: Sharad Yadav

New Delhi : The Janata Dal-United (JD-U) Sunday said its alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was very old and it did not want to break the partnership.

“Our alliance with the BJP is very old and we don’t want to break it. We want to continue this alliance. Difference between the BJP and JD-U is being projected by the media,” JD-U president Sharad Yadav said at the two-day national party meet here.

In an indirect reference to Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi whose candidature for the prime minister’s post has been opposed by the JD-U, Yadav said: “We don’t have anything to do with any individual. We have been with the NDA (National Democratic Alliance) for the past 17 years and we had to suffer because of our coalition… but we still continued.”

He said the JD-U had been weakened since it merged with the Samata Party and there were many challenges facing it.

“There are challenges everywhere and every time. We have not been able to make the party reach where it was supposed to reach,” Yadav said.

“When JD-U and Samata Party merged, both were national parties. But now their strength has decreased,” he added.

The Samata Party was merged into the JD-U in October 2003. The JD-U was then also a part of the NDA ruling coalition. The party was formed in 1994 by Nitish Kumar, now Bihar chief minister, and veteran socialist leader George Fernandes.