New Delhi : The Congress has finally tied knots with Lalu Prasad’s Rashtriya Janata Dal and Ram Vilas Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party in Bihar for the Lok Sabha elections after the state leaders convinced Rahul Gandhi that CM Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal(U) cannot stop the juggernaut of the Bhartiya Janata Party in the state.
Rahul had reservation to enter into alliance with Lalu Prasad because of his conviction in the fodder scam and his consequent disqualification from the Lok Sabha under a Supreme Court judgment. He forced withdrawal of an Ordinance brought by the government to save Lalu from losing the Lok Sabha membership. Lalu is now out on bail granted by the Supreme Court.
The alliance with Lalu may dent Rahul’s claim that he was against the politics of corruption, but he understood the electoral compulsions than to stand on his principles, the party sources said.
Banking on Lalu regaining sympathy votes from his imprisonment that may enable him to fair much better than Nitish Kumar and his continuous support to the UPA government weighed on Rahul to approve the alliance on Saturday. Rahul was also told that Nitish displayed dictatorial tendencies that has dipped his popularity while he will also lose the upper caste votes he gained due to the past alliance with the BJP.
With Rahul’s nod, Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh rushed to Patna on Sunday and sewed up the seat-sharing formula with Lalu and Paswan. The RJD will contest for the highest 22 of the 40 seats in the state, while the Congress will contest for 11 and LJP for six seats. One seat of Katihar is left for Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader and union minister of state for agriculture Tariq Anwar to contest. It will be thus a triangular contest between this alliance, JD(U) and BJP.
Lalu Prasad called on Rahul on Monday and thanked him for the agreement on the alliance. This was their second meeting in fortnight. Lalu suggested the care that the Congress should take in selection of its candidates.
An alliance of the three parties romped home 29 of the 40 seats in 2004 elections. The alliance fell through in 2009, making the BJP-JD(U) alliance carry away 32 seats. It is another matter that the Congress could win only two seats, with and without alliance, in the two elections. The RJD had bagged 23 seats and LJP 4 in the 2004 elections while the RJD”s number slumped to just 4 and LJP drew blank in 2009.
Source: FreePressJournal.in
Rahul had reservation to enter into alliance with Lalu Prasad because of his conviction in the fodder scam and his consequent disqualification from the Lok Sabha under a Supreme Court judgment. He forced withdrawal of an Ordinance brought by the government to save Lalu from losing the Lok Sabha membership. Lalu is now out on bail granted by the Supreme Court.
The alliance with Lalu may dent Rahul’s claim that he was against the politics of corruption, but he understood the electoral compulsions than to stand on his principles, the party sources said.
Banking on Lalu regaining sympathy votes from his imprisonment that may enable him to fair much better than Nitish Kumar and his continuous support to the UPA government weighed on Rahul to approve the alliance on Saturday. Rahul was also told that Nitish displayed dictatorial tendencies that has dipped his popularity while he will also lose the upper caste votes he gained due to the past alliance with the BJP.
With Rahul’s nod, Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh rushed to Patna on Sunday and sewed up the seat-sharing formula with Lalu and Paswan. The RJD will contest for the highest 22 of the 40 seats in the state, while the Congress will contest for 11 and LJP for six seats. One seat of Katihar is left for Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader and union minister of state for agriculture Tariq Anwar to contest. It will be thus a triangular contest between this alliance, JD(U) and BJP.
Lalu Prasad called on Rahul on Monday and thanked him for the agreement on the alliance. This was their second meeting in fortnight. Lalu suggested the care that the Congress should take in selection of its candidates.
An alliance of the three parties romped home 29 of the 40 seats in 2004 elections. The alliance fell through in 2009, making the BJP-JD(U) alliance carry away 32 seats. It is another matter that the Congress could win only two seats, with and without alliance, in the two elections. The RJD had bagged 23 seats and LJP 4 in the 2004 elections while the RJD”s number slumped to just 4 and LJP drew blank in 2009.
Source: FreePressJournal.in
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