Patna: The ruling Janata Dal (United) has announced that it would not field its candidates from any of the three seats in Bihar where bypolls (one Lok Sabha and two Assembly seats) are scheduled to be held in March 2018. 


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The bypoll in Araria was necessitated by the death of RJD MP Mohammad Taslimuddin. The BJP had finished second in the seat in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, closely followed by the JD (U), which had contested the parliamentary polls separately.


The Jahanabad seat has fallen vacant after the death of RJD MLA Mundrika Yadav. The JD(U) had fought the 2015 Assembly polls in alliance with the RJD and the Congress.


In Bhabhua, the bypoll has been necessitated following the demise of BJP MLA Anand Bhushan Pandey.


"State party president Bashishtha Narain Singh has announced that we will not be taking part in the bypolls to the Araria Lok Sabha seat and Jahanabad and Bhabhua Assembly seats," a senior JD(U) leader said, as per PTI.


The party is now an NDA constituent. 


Meanwhile, RJD leader and Lalu Prasad's son Tejashwi Yadav took potshots at Bihar CM Nitish Kumar, saying, "The decision not to contest any seat in the bypolls is indicative of the chief minister's capitulation before the BJP."


"It is just a matter of time before Nitish Kumar decides to merge his party with the BJP and conveniently settle down for a gubernatorial assignment. JD(U) MLAs, though, would be left in the lurch," he tweeted.




Nitish had walked out of the Grand Alliance in 2017, following corruption cases against Tejashwi, who was then the deputy CM and had returned to the BJP-led alliance four years after it snapped the 17-year-old ties with the saffron party.


The decision to return to the NDA fold was taken in a resolution approved at a meeting of the national executive of the JD(U) chaired by Nitish.


Nitish had driven JD(U) to walk out of NDA on June 16, 2013, over Narendra Modi being made the prime ministerial candidate.


(With PTI inputs)