The Bharatiya Janata Party should make the National Democratic Alliance more cohesive and address concerns related to farmers and Dalits and fuel prices, coalition partner Janata Dal (United) said on Thursday. The BJP won only two of the 13 bye-elections held in Lok Sabha and Assembly seats across 10 states on Monday.
The ruling party would face its biggest challenge in Uttar Pradesh, PTI quoted JD(U) Spokesperson KC Tyagi as saying. In Uttar Pradesh, the BJP lost both the Kairana parliamentary seat and the Noorpur Assembly constituency.
Sugarcane farmers in Kairana have still not been paid thousands of crores of rupees, Tyagi claimed, admitting that the results there showed that “ganna [sugarcane]” had won over Jinnah. He was referring to the controversy that broke out in Aligarh Muslim University earlier this month over a portrait of Pakistan’s founder Mohammad Ali Jinnah.
However, Tyagi said the JD(U) would not quit the NDA. The party would support the BJP’s efforts to strengthen the alliance, he added.
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