Lalu Prasad throws alliance ball in Nitish Kumar's court, wants quick talks

NEW DELHI/PATNA: The uncertainty over Bihar’s ruling party’s alliance for the state polls continued with the Congress central leadership saying it favoured a “larger secular alliance” to take on BJP, even as the RJD said that Nitish Kumar cannot be the alliance’s CM candidate. The Congress state unit had publicly backed an alliance with only Nitish’s JD(U) but the AICC on Monday said it wanted tha alliance to include other parties.

“We are for a larger secular alliance to take on BJP in Bihar,” Congress s p o ke s p e r s o n Rajeev Gowda said in New Delhi on Monday. When asked specifically if the party was open to an alliance with JD(U) if RJD chief Lalu Prasad plays hardball, Gowda said, “we would like to have a multi-party umbrella alliance to defeat the BJP.”

The RJD has, meanwhile, said that it would settle for any name other than Kumar’s as CM candidate for the proposed alliance. “Projecting Nitishji as the chief ministerial candidate of the alliance would not be a politically rewarding prospect.

Where are the voters who will support him? The Scheduled Castes have already turned their back on him after the ouster of Jitan Ram Manjhi, even the home guards, health workers, krishi salakaars are opposing him,” RJD VP Raghuvansh Prasad Singh said.