New Delhi, Nov 16: Key NDA partner Janata Dal (United) will test its new found strength, after merger of Samata Party, in 113 seats in the coming assembly elections in five states without any electoral understanding with BJP. While the Hindi-speaking states of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Delhi account for 84 seats, the party has fielded 29 candidates in distant Mizoram.
The two parties had last month announced their decision to merge and contest the elections jointly as Janata Dal (United) and in the absence of any tie up with the bigger NDA partner, BJP, JD(U) is going it alone in the polls.
Though BJP agreed to give only three seats to JD(U) in Rajasthan where the sitting MLAs belonged to Samata Party, the Dal was unhappy over BJP's "big brother" attitude and decided to contest on its own.
JD(U) is contesting 14 seats in Rajasthan, 28 in Madhya Pradesh and 21 each in Chhattisgarh and Delhi, according to party spokesman Shiv Kumar.
Bureau Report