After Opposing Article 370 Move, JD(U) Says New Law ‘Should be Abided by All’
The Janata Dal (United), a BJP ally in the NDA, softened its position in Patna on Wednesday after opposing the Centre’s resolution on Article 370 and the bill dividing Jammu and Kashmir. The party said the law now in force must be respected by everyone.
What the party said
Ram Chandra Prasad Singh, the JD(U) national general secretary and its leader in the Rajya Sabha, told reporters the party had no wish to continue the ideological argument. “It should be abided by all,” he said of the new law, adding that the party had registered its protest by not voting for the measure.
JD(U) members in both Houses had spoken against the resolution and the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Bill, 2019, and then walked out rather than vote against it. Singh said the party could not have backed the bill because the Centre had not consulted it, and that its position drew on the views of its founding president George Fernandes and socialist leaders such as Lohia and Jayprakash Narayan.
He said the party’s focus now was that people in Jammu and Kashmir should benefit from the better governance the Centre had promised.
Bihar alliance
Singh, seen as one of party president Nitish Kumar’s closest aides, said the differences would not affect the ruling coalition in Bihar, and that the allies expected to fight the next year’s assembly election together.
He also brushed aside a remark by party MLC Ghulam Rasool Balyawi that there was “no NDA, only the BJP”, saying everyone was entitled to a personal opinion and that the party’s stand reflected Nitish Kumar’s thinking.
The JD(U) has long said it does not share the BJP’s views on Article 370, a Uniform Civil Code and the Ayodhya dispute. A month earlier it had also opposed the triple talaq bill.
What happened next
In the 2020 Bihar assembly election, the Rashtriya Janata Dal won 75 seats, the BJP 74, the JD(U) 43 and the Congress 19. Nitish Kumar remained Chief Minister after the election.
See also: Janata Dal (United) and elections.
Originally published on 8 August 2019. Rewritten on 9 October 2026.
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