Samajwadi Party not to contest Bihar Assembly polls, will support RJD instead

The announcement was made through SP's official Twitter handle on late Monday night.

In the tweet, SP said, “In the forthcoming Bihar assembly elections, Samajwadi Party will not enter into any alliance in Bihar and will support RJD’s candidates.”

SP's chief spokesperson Rajendra Choudhury said on Tuesday that the party has decided not to contest the Bihar assembly polls and instead will support RJD candidates in the elections slated within next two months.

He said that the decision of the party will boost the secular unity in Bihar and will stop the BJP crusade.

However, SP sources said there are two primary reasons behind not contesting the Bihar polls. Firstly to concentrate in the UP assembly polls slated for early 2022 and to get the support of other secular parties like RJD in UP.

Secondly, the SP does not have a strong base in Bihar and thus does not want to waste its energy and resources.

In 2015, the SP had pulled out of a Grand Alliance of RJD and Congress after it was offered only five seats. It then entered into an alliance with NCP but both the parties could not win a single seat.

Before this, SP’s performance in 2010 Bihar polls, too, was dismal. It had contested 146 seats out of the total of 243 but could not win any.

Meanwhile, another UP party, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) is expected to contest all the assembly seats in Bihar.