New Delhi, May 4: A Jharkhand Mukti Morcha MP today said he did not consider his party an NDA partner, a day after its candidate beat the BJP’s S.S. Ahluwalia in the Rajya Sabha election.

“We do not consider ourselves a part of the NDA. We formed the government with them (the BJP) in the state to prevent instability. Our agreement is confined to Jharkhand. We parted ways over whether we should elect a local or an outsider (in the Rajya Sabha). We have won. In the Rajya Sabha or the Lok Sabha we have no ties with the BJP or the NDA,” Palamu MP Kameshwar Baitha said.

He also said his party’s vote in the presidential election would depend on the candidate, not the political alliance.

Before the countermanded March 30 poll in Ranchi, the BJP had asked the JMM to pledge its loyalty to the NDA at the national level in exchange for its support to the JMM’s Rajya Sabha candidate. Both parties have been ambiguous about the alliance since then.

“We want a good President and our alliance with the BJP would have no bearing on our choice,” Baitha said.

Yashwant jab

The BJP’s Yashwant Sinha on Friday alleged that the party had not “made sufficient efforts” to ensure S.S. Ahluwalia’s win in the Rajya Sabha poll.

Sinha’s comment has not gone down well within the party. A source asked what Sinha meant by “sufficient efforts” and said the BJP had set certain ground rules like “not employing extra-legal and extra-constitutional means” to win a seat. “We could have won only by enticing the Independents with blandishments that we did not wish to,” the source said.