Paswan meets Lalu on Bihar seat sharing issue

With the Congress announcing it would contest 26 of the 40 Lok Sabha seats in Bihar, RJD and LJP have launched a damage control exercise asking the national party not to do anything that could spoil the UPA's poll prospects in the state.

"I hope Sonia Gandhi will not do anything which weakens UPA and strengthens NDA," Union Minister and LJP chief Ram Vilas Paswan told reporters after holding an hour-long meeting with RJD chief Lalu Prasad last evening.

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Paswan's meeting with Prasad took place shortly after Congress announced its decision to go it alone in over 26 seats in Bihar and admitted Lalu Prasad's rebel brother-in-law Sadhu Yadav along with half-a-dozen RJD leaders.

The Congress decision to contest the seats in Bihar came two days after RJD and LJP reached a seat sharing accord apportioning among them 25 and 12 seats respectively leaving only three for Congress out of a total of 40 parliamentary constituencies in the state.

Despite Congress's ire at being given one seat less than what in had contested in the 2004 elections, AICC spokesman Abhishek Singhvi, claimed yesterday "our alliance with RJD and LJP is intact" while saying that there was a "deep sense of hurt in the party" over the issue.

Singhvi made the observation even as the AICC in-charge for Bihar Iqbal Singh said separately, "more people would join the party. We are on a strong footing."

Asked to comment whether the Congress announcement of going it alone and Sadhu Yadav's joining that party signalled the UPA's disintegration, Paswan said, "There's still time. We have time before the elections."

Regarding Yadav's joining Congress, he said "I have nothing to say. Everybody is free to join any party. And Congress is after all not an alien party. It is the UPA."

To a query whether Congress decision to contest 26 seats will have any bearing on UPA, Paswan said, "It is up to Congress how many seats it will contest. Whoever contests, if the total number of seats the three parties win increases, it will be an increase for the UPA, and if it decreases, it will be a decrease for the UPA."

Describing Congress as a national party he said, "It (Congress) understands everything. Congress is the head of UPA and Sonia Gandhi its chairperson. She's running a national party, she understands everything."

Asked whether LJP will concede any more seats to Congress from its quota of 12 seats, Paswan said "We have got only 12 seats against our demand for 16 seats".

Though the RJD had ruled out any possibility of giving any seat to Congress from its quota, a section of the party is in favour of granting two more seats to the party to prevent division of secular votes.