The never-ending saga of the Gujarat Assembly Election seems to be a long-drawn story of success, tie-ups, betrayals, friends, and foes. The latest to be part of this saga is Bihar Chief Minister-led Janta Dal (United) – JD(U) Nitish Kumar faction.

The Nitish Kumar-led JD(U) faction, which is in a coalition government with BJP in Bihar, has declared to contest the coming Gujarat Assembly elections as an independently without any tie-up with its coalition partner.

The party has declared that the JD(U) has not entered into any seat-sharing understanding with the BJP in Gujarat and will fight the elections on at least 12 Assembly seats mainly in the tribal regions of the state.

JD(U) does not have a strong foothold in Gujarat, as they had just won a single seat in the 2012 Assembly elections.  Earlier, the party had hinted at fighting a substantial number of seats in the state, however they decided to contest 12 seats in Gujarat, focusing primarily on the tribal belt of the state.

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JD(U) entering the Gujarat election is yet another roadblock for the BJP as well as the Congress, as both are trying to capture the tribal vote bank which is about 15 per cent of the electoral vote.

The Congress has already gained the trust of the most prominent tribal leader Chotubhai Vasava, who had openly sided with the party and voted for the Congress during the Rajya Sabha polls, thus ensuring the win for Congress leader Ahmed Patel.

Chotubhai Vasava has joined ranks with JD(U)’s faction led by Sharad Yadav and is a strong tribal leader in the state. Vasava is already in talks with the Congress to corner about 20 seats for his supporters which the Congress is yet to agree to.

The JD(U) has been strong in the entire tribal belt of the state which stretches up to as far as Banswara in Rajasthan. The tribal belt, which includes areas like Bharuch and Chota Udaipur, was nurtured by socialist leader Mama Baleshwar Dayal, who is considered a legend in the area and is much revered even now.

With the Sharad Yadav faction unlikely to get the ‘arrow’ party symbol of the JD(U), the fielding of candidates by Nitish Kumar is likely to divide the tribal votes in the state.

Sharad Yadav has openly said that his faction will fight the Gujarat Assembly elections alongside the Congress party and since then the two parties are in talks for seat-sharing arrangements.

On JD(U) contesting the elections independently, sources say that senior leaders of both the parties have been talking to each other and the BJP has said that it has no problem if the JD(U) fields its candidates in as many number of seats.

“The Janata Dal has been fighting elections on its own in this region of Gujarat, even when it was a part of the NDA and George Fernandes was its convener. Hence this time also we will fight on our own,” a senior leader said.

Nitish Kumar faction is also confident of retaining the ‘arrow’ party symbol, the case for which is being heard in the Election Commission. In such a scenario, the Sharad Yadav team will have to field its candidates either as independents or on the Congress symbol.