With the Congress announcing it would contest 26 of the 40 Lok Sabha seats in Bihar, RJD and LJP have launched a damage control exercise asking the national party not to do anything that could spoil the UPA's poll prospects in the state.
With the Congress announcing it would contest 26 of the 40 Lok Sabha seats in Bihar, RJD and LJP have launched a damage control exercise asking the national party not to do anything that could spoil the UPA's poll prospects in the state.
"I hope Sonia Gandhi will not do anything which weakens UPA and strengthens NDA," Union Minister and LJP chief Ram Vilas Paswan told reporters after holding an hour-long meeting with RJD chief Lalu Prasad Thursday evening.
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Paswan's meeting with Prasad took place shortly after Congress announced its decision to go it alone in over 26 seats in Bihar and admitted Lalu Prasad's rebel brother-in-law Sadhu Yadav along with half-a-dozen RJD leaders.
The Congress decision to contest the seats in Bihar came two days after RJD and LJP reached a seat sharing accord apportioning among them 25 and 12 seats respectively leaving only three for Congress out of a total of 40 parliamentary constituencies in the state.
Despite Congress's ire at being given one seat less than what in had contested in the 2004 elections, AICC spokesman Abhishek Singhvi, claimed on Thursday "our alliance with RJD and LJP is intact" while saying that there was a "deep sense of hurt in the party" over the issue.
Singhvi made the observation even as the AICC in-charge for Bihar Iqbal Singh said separately, "more people would join the party. We are on a strong footing."
Asked to comment whether the Congress announcement of going it alone and Sadhu Yadav's joining that party signalled the UPA's disintegration, Paswan said, "There's still time. We have time before the elections."
Regarding Yadav's joining Congress, he said, "I have nothing to say. Everybody is free to join any party. And Congress is after all not an alien party. It is the UPA."
To a query whether Congress decision to contest 26 seats will have any bearing on UPA, Paswan said, "It is up to Congress how many seats it will contest. Whoever contests, if the total number of seats the three parties win increases, it will be an increase for the UPA, and if it decreases, it will be a decrease for the UPA."
Describing Congress as a national party he said, "It (Congress) understands everything. Congress is the head of UPA and Sonia Gandhi its chairperson. She's running a national party, she understands everything."
Asked whether LJP will concede any more seats to Congress from its quota of 12 seats, Paswan said "We have got only 12 seats against our demand for 16 seats".
Though the RJD had ruled out any possibility of giving any seat to Congress from its quota, a section of the party is in favour of granting two more seats to the party to prevent division of secular votes.
A senior RJD leader on condition of anonymity said, "Third Front is uncertain and we will not go to NDA anyway. Then why embitter our relationship with Congress when finally we have to come together," he said.
Hinting that there could be some changes in the seat sharing arrangement announced earlier, an RJD leader said, "We are thinking how to work this out".
At the same time he admitted there was tremendous pressure from leaders in the state to not give up any more seats. LJP chief Ram Vilas Paswan said his party would not contest less than 12 seats but could exchange a few seats if RJD decides to give any seat to Congress from its quota.
Sources said seats where re-allotment could be considered are Maharajganj, Jehanbad, Begusarai and Nalanda. While the first two are in the RJD quota, LJP has got the other two.
The Congress candidate was the runner up from Begusarai in the last elections while the JD(U) MP from Nalanda had voted for the Congress during the trust vote and the party wanted to field him from the same seat this time.
Maharajganj figured in the demand list of Congress. The sources said that Congress, which had initially given a list of 17 seats to stitch up the alliance with LJP and RJD in Bihar, had finally agreed on seven seats.
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