Soon after his party’s crucial Parliamentary board meeting was concluded, RJD chief lalu Prasad on Sunday declared that he was still hopeful of having an alliance with the Congress but “now they (Congress) have to decide on this”.
lalu also said that he would kick-start his poll campaign from March 5 and have appealed to his party leaders and workers to jump into the poll area with full force and might.
“After coming out of Ranchi jail I was in Delhi for two months talking with the Congress leaders for an alliance to stop the communal forces in the elections…Congress is a big national party but I’m sill hopeful that an alliance will strike between us,” said lalu Prasad at his wife Rabri Devi’s official residence 10, Circular Road.
The RJD chief further said that he has now left everything to the Congress to decide as he has already submitted the name of constituencies and seats his party would spare for them in Bihar.
“likh kar de diye hai…11 seat Congress ko aur ek NCP ko…Katihar wala,” he said while adding that now they (Congress) have to take the decision, but very little time is now left for campaigning and we’ve to jump into it as soon as possible.”
“For how long should I be waiting for their response in Delhi,” asked the RJD chief.
Interestingly, on Saturday, lalu had set the deadline before the Congress to take a final call over alliance — before his party’s scheduled Parliamentary Board meeting on Sunday at 3 pm. “But no assurances on this issue came before or after the deadline on Sunday,” party sources said.
lalu told mediapersons that he would now kick-start his poll campaign from March 5 from Nawada.
“The real issue is not an alliance or political chemistry but to stop the communal forces who are hell-bent on dividing the nation..I’ve already expressed this sentiment to Congress president Sonia Gandhi and other party leaders,” said lalu Prasad.
Meanwhile, reports said that a top Congress leader and party’s candidate for Madhubani seat Shakeel Ahmad Khan has informed the party leadership that he was ready to sacrifice his claim on the seat for the interest of alliance with the RJD in Bihar.
Party sources said that Madhubani Parliamentary seat was one of the most crucial stumbling blocks between two party’s alliances as the RJD had already told Congress leadership that it could not forego with Madhubani seat from where party’s prominent leader Abdul Bari Siddqui would contest. The seats where the hitch remained between two parties are Bhagalpur, Motihari and Jehanabad.
In other significant development, the outgoing Rajya Sabha member who recently was expelled from the JD(U), Shivanand Tiwari has said that if the RJD chief would invite him into his party he could go there.
Tiwari recently had attacked Nitish Kumar for his dictatorial style of functioning and was denied re-nomination for the Rajya Sabha. RJD boss lalu Prasad too recently had some good words for Tiwari saying that he was famously known for calling a spade a spade. Tiwari was earlier in the RJD but had quit the party later to join hands with Nitish Kumar.