Cong cool to RJD-LJP offer for bypolls tieup
Having burnt their fingers in the Lok Sabha polls, the RJD and the LJP are now keen on roping in the Congress for forging a credible broad- based alliance for byelections to the 18 Assembly seats in Bihar.
By Ashok K Mishra, ET Bureau |
PATNA: Having burnt their fingers in the Lok Sabha polls, the RJD and the LJP are now keen on roping in the Congress for forging a credible broad- based alliance for byelections to the 18 Assembly seats in Bihar. However, their efforts have gone in vain with the Bihar Congress in-charge Jagdish Tytler again asserting on Thursday that the party will go it alone in Bihar and ruling out tie-ups with regional parties.
The byelections have been necessitated as a number of MLAs had to relinquish their assembly seats following their election to the Lok Sabha. Besides, some other MLAs like Ramai Ram and Lallan Paswan had to resign following their defection to other parties to contest the Lok Sabha elections.
The byelections will be held in two phases ��� 7 seats on September 10 and 11 on September 15. Despite the state Congress leadership���s apathy towards alliances, LJP chief Ram Vilas Paswan did not lose heart and kept on sounding out the Congress high command. He even publicly declared that he favoured a Congress-LJP-RJD alliance to trounce communal forces in the byelections. But there was no response from the other side.
In a last-ditch attempt, RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav too called on AICC president Sonia Gandhi in New Delhi recently but met with little success.
Mr Tytler, now in Patna, is going through the probables list. He held meetings with state Congress leaders, discussing names of candidates who could be fielded. At the same time, he dismissed any speculation on alliance and said the Congress did not need support of any party for politically consolidating itself in the state.
As was the case in the Lok Sabha elections, the RJD-LJP duo will contest the byelections and if sources are to believed, Lalu's oufit will contest in 13 seats, leaving 5 to the LJP. "The seat-sharing agreement has not been finalised. We are staking claim for 6 seats but all this will be amicably sorted out," an LJP leader said.
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With the ruling NDA having already consolidated its political position, it will again be in a position to give another drubbing to the RJD-LJP combine. What has further complicated matters for the RJD, a number of its leaders have switched loyalties to the ruling JD(U) conveying the impression that the RJD was a 'sinking ship'. As for the Congress, which boasts of 8 MLAs only, it can possibly hope to increase its vote share and if it does succeed in winning more than a couple of seats, it will be reckoned as a good show for party which, for years, had remained politically dependent on Lalu's RJD.
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