Ram Vilas Paswan meets Sonia Gandhi on alliance issue

NEW DELHI: LJP leader Ram Vilas Paswan today met Congress President Sonia Gandhi to discuss the issue of a poll alliance in Bihar.

Both LJP and RJD are aiming to ally with the Congress ahead of the Lok Sabha polls. RJD Chief Lalu Prasad had met the Congress President earlier this month and also Rahul Gandhi on Thursday in this regard.

"Congress is our natural ally. We have requested Congress to take the lead in firming up a secular alliance in Bihar," Paswan said after meeting Gandhi today.

During their meeting, Paswan is learnt to have briefed Gandhi about the plus and negative of aligning both with RJD and JD(U).

Sources said the LJP leader is also learnt to have voiced his resentment over the statements of some RJD leaders on giving lower number of seats to his party in case of an alliance among the three.

"We have told her (Sonia) that LJP will respect her opinion but whatever decision is taken should be respectable," Paswan said later.

He is said to have told the Congress president that in case an alliance is firmed up with RJD, it should be ensured that any tainted face should not be projected.

Lalu Prasad had met Congress chief Sonia Gandhi a few days ago and vowed not to repeat the 2009 mistake of allowing the breakdown of alliance between RJD and Congress.

Prasad is likely to meet the Congress chief again later this month for working out details of a possible alliance.

He had earlier said he has full confidence that an alliance of Congress-RJD-LJP will materialise this time and halt the march of "communal forces" in Bihar, Jharkhand and elsewhere.

He had also praised the leadership of Rahul Gandhi as "million times better" than that of Narendra Modi and Arvind Kejriwal.

The RJD chief had also expressed regret over the break-up of the tie-up with Congress in 2009 due to his mistake of offering only three seats to Congress and said the error will not be repeated this time.

LJP and RJD had fought 2009 Lok Sabha elections separately without an alliance with Congress and as a result while RJD could win only four seats in Bihar, Congress two and LJP failed to open its account. This was in stark contrast to their having together won 29 seats in 2004 Lok Sabha polls.