RJD chief lalu Prasad Yadav on Tuesday met Congress president Sonia Gandhi seeking an alliance between the two parties even as he later regretted for having snapped ties with its former ally in 2009.
lalu had then offered only three seats to the Congress. On New Year eve, he said the error will not be repeated this time.
lalu said Sonia has said she will meet him again this month to discuss with him the issue of alliance. He said he can say with full confidence that an alliance of Congress-RJD-lJP will happen this time and will halt the march of “communal forces” in Bihar, Jharkhand and elsewhere.
“I am saying with full confidence that we will unite all secular parties against communal forces. The Congress is all India party, a strong and secular party. Earlier we were together, even today we are so and will remain together even in future…I will make any sacrifice for this...I will not allow communal forces to occupy power at any cost…That is my dream....,” lalu said after the meeting which lasted for about 10 minutes.
Amid indications that lJP chief Ram Vilas Paswan is peeved at the RJD undermining his party this time and repeatedly talking of giving it less seats, lalu said he was not angry with either Paswan or anybody else.
He also chose the occasion to praise the leadership of Rahul Gandhi as “million times better” than that of Narendra Modi and Arvind Kejriwal.
Soon after his release from Ranchi Jail, lalu had claimed Sonia had called him up to extend her greetings on his release. lalu had then stated that he would work hard to forge an alliance with all secular parties to ensure defeat of communal forces in the next general elections. “Now that I am out on bail, talks on alliance with secular parties will be initiated,” he said.
lalu’s revelation about Sonia’s call and Bihar Congress chief Ashok Choudhary’s meeting with the Congress leadership Sonia and Rahul Gandhi the same week had led to strong speculation in political circles about likely pre-poll alliance among the Congress, RJD and lJP. lJP president Ram Vilas Paswan too has expressed his desire to have pre-poll tie-up with the Congress and the RJD in Bihar.
Congress contested the 2009 lok Sabha election alone in Bihar while RJD and lJP had alliance. The Congress had then won only two seats — Sasaram and Kishanganj — out of the 40 lok Sabha seats in Bihar. It had bagged more than one lakh votes in another five constituencies: Sitamarhi, Madhubani, Supaul, Muzaf-farpur and Khagaria. The RJD had won four seats while the lJP could not open its account.