Bihar Chief Minister’s Janata Dal (United) is looking forward to contesting a large number of seats at the upcoming Bengal polls, where its ally BJP has high stakes, the party asserted on Thursday.

JD(U) national general secretary Ghulam Rasool Baliyavi said that the party unit in Bengal wants to contest in at least 75 seats and the number may go up, if the leadership is approved.

Election to the 294-seat Bengal Assembly is expected to be held in April-May next year. The BJP, which had put forward an excellent show in the Lok Sabha polls last year, has been looking to overthrow the Mamata Banerjee government.

“We have contested assembly elections in West Bengal in the past. We would like to do so this time also. Our party has carried out massive membership drives in districts such as Malda, Murshidabad, Purulia and Bankura,” Baliyavi said.

He said the party was hopeful of doing well in places which have a high percentage of people hailing from Bihar, and claimed that the good governance of Nitish Kumar has created a buzz in the neighbouring state.

The JD(U) has been maintaining that its alliance with the BJP was confined to Bihar. The party has fought in states like Karnataka and Gujarat without a tie-up with the BJP, which is in power. In BJP-rule Arunachal Pradesh, the JD(U) is the main opposition party.

Similarly in Jharkhand, where BJP lost power last year, the JD(U) had contested separately.

However, the JD(U) fought the Delhi assembly polls earlier this year in alliance with the BJP.

Addressing a query on these lines, Baliyavi said, “I am of the opinion that the BJP should think in terms of taking Nitish Kumar along. If it chooses otherwise, then every party has the right to expand its own base.”