Miffed at by Gujarat's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party's rejection of seat-adjustment with it, National Democratic Alliance partner Janata Dal-United has decided to fight against the saffron party in the assembly elections in the state in December.
"JD-U will fight in at least 27 seats in the state in the coming elections independently," party's national general secretary Arun Shrivastava told reporters in Ahmedabad on Monday.
"Though we have an alliance at the Central level and BJP is supporting us in Bihar, our party has decided to fight elections against BJP in the state," he added.
JD-U is the only regional party in Gujarat, which has two MLAs in state assembly.
The two MLAs of Sharad Yadav-led JD-U had won on their own strengths in the 2002 elections, fought after the post-Godhra communal violence.
There is no question of having an electoral alliance with the BJP in Gujarat as the chief minister (Narendra Modi) instead of offering seats to them had asked our two MLAs to join BJP, Shrivastava said.
"I had heard in Delhi that Gujarat is developing at a very fast pace. When I came here, I saw development in the cities but the villages of Gujarat are still like villages of any other part of the country," he added.
"We are against mall and SEZ culture. They only help industrialists to prosper and not the poor people," he added.