Congress-RJD announce tie-up in Bihar

The Congress and the RJD Wednesday announced they had finalised an alliance to fight the Lok Sabha polls in Bihar, agreeing to contest 12 and 27 seats respectively, while the NCP will put up a candidate for the remaining seat from the state.

"An alliance of Congress, RJD and NCP has been finalised and will contest Lok Sabha polls in Bihar to take on communal forces. We will prove our strength by good performance in polls," an upbeat Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad said at a joint press conference with the Congress here at the official residence of his wife and former chief minister Rabri Devi.

He said the RJD has agreed to set aside 12 of the 40 Lok Sabha seats in Bihar for the Congress to contest and one for the Nationalist Congress Party. The RJD will contest 27 seats.

The RJD chief said the biggest threat to the country was that of communal forces who are trying to divide the country for the sake of power politics."We will not allow them to do so," he asserted.

Lalu Prasad claimed that the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh's hidden agenda will be implemented by the Bharatiya Janata Party's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi if he comes to power.

State Congress president Ashok Choudhary also said that his party has decided on the alliance with the RJD and the NCP to take on communal forces in the polls.

Earlier, speaking at a public meeting in Gaya, Lalu Prasad said his party will declare the list of candidates for the Lok Sabha polls within two days.

He had earlier said that he would offer only 11 seats to the Congress and one to the NCP, and the RJD would contest all the others.

His aides say he has learnt a bitter lesson since the last Lok Sabha elections when he offered only three seats to the Congress.

In December, after being released on bail in the fodder scam case, Lalu Prasad, who broke his alliance with the Congress in 2009, said he would not repeat the mistake.

In 2004, the Congress-RJD-Lok Janshakti Party combine won 29 Lok Sabha seats in Bihar. But fighting separately in 2009, the RJD got only four seats and the Congress two.

Ram Vilas Paswan's LJP, which has recently joined the National Democratic Alliance, did not win a single seat.