Lalu files nomination for Patliputra seat

Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav today filed his nomination for the newly-formed Patliputra Lok Sabha constituency, the second one after Saran seat, where polling took place in the first phase.

Lalu submitted his papers to Patna district magistrate-cum-returning officer J K Sinha. He is pitted against his friend-turned-foe JD(U) leader Ranjan Prasad Yadav in Patliputra.

Yadav had last month severed his relations with Ramvilas Paswan's LJP and joined the ruling  JD(U).

After filing his nomination, the railway minister told a poll meeting at the historic Gandhi Maidan here that his victory from the seat was "a foregone conclusion".

The RJD-LJP-SP alliance would win all the 16 seats in Bihar and Jharkhand where polling was held yesterday, he said.

"We -- Ramvilas Paswan, Mulayam Singh Yadav and I -- have aligned to defeat the communal and fascist forces across India ...There is a massive wave favouring our alliance in north India, Jharkhand and Bihar and we are set to have our government at the Centre after the elections," he said.

He called upon RJD men to sink their differences and work whole-heartedly for ensuring victory of the candidates of the combine in Bihar and Jharkhand.