Ram Vilas Paswan meets Rabri Devi, moots alliance with Congress

PATNA: With jailed RJD chief Lalu Prasad disqualified as Lok Sabha member, ally LJP President Ramvilas Paswan met Rabri Devi here today and mooted an alliance of secular parties, including Congress.

Accompanied by son and LJP Parliamentary board chief Chirag Paswan, he visited Rabri Devi's official residence.

Rabri Devi's elder son was present during the meeting. Later, talking to reporters Ramvilas Paswan said LJP's ties with RJD in Bihar was intact and that he had spoken to UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi in detail about political situation.

"I told Sonia Gandhi during a recent meeting that secular parties RJD, LJP and Congress should come on one platform to defeat communal forces in the 2014 parliamentary elections and Bihar assembly polls in 2015," he said.

"I told her the plus and minus if Congress goes it alone in the 2014 polls, if it forges a tie-up with JD(U) of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and stays with time tested friends like LJP and RJD ... I told her that Lalu Prasad and I stood like a rock with Congress even when not part of UPA II."

Echoing him, Rabri Devi, who has been entrusted with the task to guide RJD in the absence of Lalu Prasad, said "Secular parties like RJD, LJP and Congress will come together ... I have full faith that this will happen." .

The RJD chief's disqualification from Lok Sabha has hit hard the morale of the party workers and an eerie silence prevailed in the state party office here. Except for some small time workers none of the state office bearers were present.

Sixty-five-year-old Prasad, convicted in the multicrore rupees fodder scam, was sentenced to five years in prison and fined Rs 25 lakh by special CBI court in Ranchi. He was till now an MP from Chhapra in Bihar.