Bihar Assembly polls: Congress asks secular parties to unite to defeat BJP

PATNA: Even as the RJD and the JD(U) are reportedly engaged in hard bargaining over seats for the coming Bihar Assembly poll, the Congress today urged all secular parties to unite in order to defeat the 'communal' BJP.

"All secular parties must unite to defeat 'communal' BJP in the election in Bihar," Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Gulam Nabi Azad told reporters here.

"I am confident that all secular parties will rally together to not only defeat the BJP-led NDA in the Assembly poll in Bihar, but also end its "politics of tension" (tanav ki rajniti), he said.

Azad's remarks came hours after Kumar met Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi in New Delhi amid speculation that the Congress favoured the idea of a secular alliance going into the polls by declaring the senior JD(U) leader as its chief ministerial face.

Asked stopped short of commenting on whether the Congress will broker truce between RJD supremo Lalu Prasad and Chief Minister Nitish Kumar to formalise the alliance ahead of the polls, but said that it would play a role in the crucial Assembly polls.

On Kumar's reported insistence on being declared as the RJD-JD(U) alliance's chief ministerial candidate for the poll, he said that the senior JD(U) leader had remained the Chief Minister and "the face of the alliance" at the moment and was being supported by all secular parties.

Amid reports that the alliance talks between the RJD and JD(U) had hit a roadblock over the latter's insistence on projection of Kumar as its chief ministerial face for the polls, the Congress leader ruled out such a prospect and claimed that the two parties would stick together and firm up an alliance not only between the two parties, but also other secular parties.

Azad, who was on a two-day visit to Bihar to discuss Bihar Assembly poll-related issues with local Congress leaders, said that his party had gained ground in the state and would contest the polls as an honourable partner of the secular alliance.