lalu awaits Sonia’s response even as Bihar PCC favours going it alone in the State
While lJP chief Ram Vilas Paswan and RJD supremo lalu Prasad have “virtually” reached a consensus on seat-sharing in Bihar, the Congress is still keeping them on tenterhooks and weighing the “pros and cons” of such an alliance.
Sources said that lalu has made several efforts to reach out to Congress president Sonia Gandhi for forging an alliance at the earliest, but he is yet to receive a strong “feeler” from 10 Janpath.
“We are ready, but a final signal has to come from the bigger party,” said a close associate of lalu and a RJD MP. He also revealed that both lalu’s son Tej Pratap and Ramvilas’s son Chirag Paswan have held a couple of meetings recently to deliberate on the alliance.
lalu has been seeking an appointment with Sonia since the beginning of this month to finalise a grand Congress-RJD-lJP-NCP alliance for the 40 lok Sabha seats in Bihar. He has already met Sonia and Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi over the issue and received “some assurance”. However, the suspense over the mega pre-poll alliance continues due to the delay caused by the Congress as earlier there was a possibility of the alliance being announced by January.
However, a section of Congress strategists are opposed to the RJD-Cong alliance because lalu Prasad stands convicted in the fodder scam. They feel that aligning with lalu will dilute Rahul’s attempt to reinvent the Congress as a party committed to fighting corruption at all levels. Party sources also said that Bihar PCC favours going it alone in the State.
Sources said that lalu had sought an ‘urgent’ appointment following Paswan and Chirag Paswan’s meeting with Sonia on January 29. Sonia reportedly instructed Chirag to finalise the matter with Rahul and discuss
the issue with Bihar AICC general secretary CP Joshi.
The dilemma for the Congress, however, grew stronger after Paswan reportedly cautioned Sonia that an alliance with the RJD could hurt the party’s fortune on the issue of corruption at a time when Rahul Gandhi has made it a poll plank.
Paswan then handed over a list of 12 lok Sabha seats including nine which the party contested in the last lok Sabha election in alliance with the RJD. Sources said that Paswan also conveyed to the Congress that his party would not talk to the RJD chief on the issue of seat-sharing directly, giving indications of incompatibility between Paswan and lalu in the alliance.
In the recent months, the Congress was seen getting close to Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. The speculation about a JD(U)-lJP-Congress tie-up grew stronger when Nitish praised Paswan. But since then Nitish has been spewing venom against the Congress.