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Updated: Dec 23, 2018 10:46 IST

The Shiv Sena, currently a part of the NDA government at the Centre, has announced that it will contest all the 40 Lok Sabha seats in Bihar.

The announcement was made by the party’s state unit president Kaushlendra Sharma after a meeting of party leaders at Ara, headquarters of Bhojpur district, on Friday.

In 2014, the Shiv Sena, which has a marginal presence in Bihar, had contested five Lok Sabha seats of Munger, Madhubani, Darbhanga, Ujiyarpur and Jehanabad and could manage only one lakh votes. The party also tried its luck in state assembly elections in 2015 and contested 72 seats, polling 2,11000 votes.

“In 12 assembly constituencies, Shiv Sena was on third position while on one (Bochaha of Muzaffarpur district), it came second,” Sharma said. “We will contest on the plank of nationalism and pride of Biharis.”

Incidentally, people from Bihar have been targeted by Shiv Sainiks in Maharashtra and attacked several times.

Sharma, however, denies this. “Shiv Sena never misbehaved with Biharis,” he said, alleging that Raj Thackeray’s party was behind such attacks.

Sharma also blamed Congress and BJP for demoralising people from Bihar in different states. He cited Madhya Pradesh’s newly appointed chief minister Kamal Nath’s recent statement about Biharis. “In Delhi and in Gujarat too, BJP activists and leaders have targeted Biharis on several occasions,” he said.

The BJP played down Sena’s plans to contest all 40 Lok Sabha seats in the state. “Shiv Sena has no base in Bihar. It will hardly make any impact on the prospects of the BJP and the NDA,” said state president of BJP’s legal cell, Tarkeshwar Thakur. “They are our partner in the NDA and we are together working on Mission 2019 to make Narendra Modi prime minister again. But as an independent political organisation, they are free to plan their politics,” said BJP spokesperson Nikhil Anand.

The residents of Ara also are not enthused by Shiv Sena’s plans.