The Congress-RJD alliance in Bihar is almost final with RJD chief lalu Prasad Yadav calling on Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi on Monday. Sources said that while last minute discussions on the “adjustments” on seat-sharing are on, deliberations are underway on the timing about the announcement of alliance — either before or after the Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s visit to Bihar on Thursday.
lalu met Rahul for the second time this month amid indications that RJD and Congress were working out the nitty-gritty of forging a “secular alliance” in Bihar. The RJD chief’s meeting is significant as it took place a day after senior Congress leader Digvijay Singh met lJP chief Ram Vilas Paswan to discuss the issue. Sources said Singh is a strong votary of secular alliance and had spoken to Prasad in last few days as well.
Both lJP and RJD have been praising Congress and making it clear that they want the ruling party to be an integral part of the “secular alliance” in Bihar, having 40 parliamentary seats. Senior Congress leaders have said that a decision on alliance is expected “very soon”.
There are two views in Congress over the issue. A dominant section of leaders favours an alliance with lalu to fight a resurgent BJP but another section is pitching for going with JD(U).
The lJP, which had made it clear that it was with Congress, has been, of late, inching closer to Nitish Kumar’s JD(U) in Bihar. However, it said it had left the final decision on including RJD or JD(U) in the “secular alliance” to the Congress.
However, the AICC remained ambivalent on the issue of alliance in Bihar as well as in Tamil Nadu with senior spokesperson Mukul Wasnik saying that there is a committee headed by AK Antony to examine the issue and it will first formulate a view.
Sonia is scheduled to visit Kisanganj on January 30 to lay the foundation of Aligarh Muslim University (AMU). The Bihar Government has already registered a protest with the HRD Ministry over not being invited to the foundation-laying ceremony. Bihar Education Minister PK Shahi wrote a letter to HRD Minister MM Pallam Raju registering State Government’s protest over keeping it out of the function.
“All of a sudden, when general election to the Parliament is to be held in next couple of months, foundation-laying by the president of the Congress party has been scheduled. What is more surprising is that there is no intimation to the state government in this regard,” Sahi said in his letter.