BJP to contest 2017 UP election alone: Mahesh Sharma

New Delhi, May 29

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will contest Uttar Pradesh Assembly election 2017 alone without a pre- or post-poll alliance, Union Minister Mahesh Sharma said on Sunday in a significant announcement for the mammoth election.

As BJP shifts focus to the UP Assembly poll after its resounding victory in Assam, Sharma said party leaders are considering the election in the politically crucial state as a "special task that has to be accomplished" but ruled out trucking with any party either before or after elections.

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"We will not have any alliance with any of the parties, whether it is Lok Dal (INLD) or any other party. No pre-poll, no post-poll alliance of any sort," Sharma — who played a significant role in the party's Lok Sabha victory in the state for which he was rewarded with a ministerial berth — said.

The party has also decided not to have contentious issues such as the Ram temple in Ayodhya — often seen as the party’s pet issue in the past — and focus instead on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's development agenda for the state.

Sharma the party will focus on good governance and corruption and said he was sure the party would win 265 out of the assembly’s 403 seats.

"Construction of the Ram temple is the wish of millions of people as a matter of faith. We do not want to make it a political issue. It is not on our political agenda. But people of this country want a Ram temple at Ayodhya. We want to do it (construct the temple) either by consensus mode or verdict by court of law," said Sharma.

The party had won 71 out of 80 Lok Sabha seats in the 2014 general elections, a significant rise from the 47 seats the party had won in the assembly polls of 2012. The party’s vote share also saw a 27 per cent rise the 15 per cent it recorded in 2012. — PTI