JDU Names Five Candidates for Madhya Pradesh Assembly Polls, May Go It Alone for Dozen Seats

The Janata Dal United (JDU), led by Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, unveiled its first slate of candidates for the Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections on Tuesday, raising the prospect of running unaffiliated for almost a dozen seats.

Leading JDU figures told The Telegraph that the party had first attempted to form a seat-sharing agreement with the Opposition INDIA (Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance), but that the attempt to do so was unsuccessful, forcing the party to go it alone.

Pichhor, Rajnagar, Vijayraghav Garh, Thandhla, and Petlawad are among the five Assembly seats represented on the list made public by JDU MLC and general secretary Afaque Ahmad Khan. Khan informed this publication, "We will soon release a second list for seven to eight more seats."

In Madhya Pradesh, a seat-sharing agreement inside the INDIA bloc would have been beneficial. However, that did not occur," he said.

The JDU has been active in Madhya Pradesh for decades, according to Khan. Our workers and leaders urged us to run in the next Assembly elections. They asked, and we granted it," he said.

Chief of the Samajwadi Party Akhilesh Yadav has voiced dissatisfaction at the INDIA partners' inability to agree on a Madhya Pradesh seat-sharing arrangement.

In 2003, 2008, and 2013, the JDU ran in the Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections. 2018 saw it not compete. In the 2003 and 2008 Assembly elections, the party has won one seat each.

Senior JDU officials are upset that Nitish, who laid the foundation for uniting the party's members around a unified platform to challenge the BJP in the general election of 2024, has had no responsibilities inside the INDIA grouping.