Congress-RJD tie-up finalised

An alliance between the Congress and the RJD in Bihar for the Lok Sabha polls has been finalised and is expected to be formally announced here Wednesday night.

"We will formally announce the alliance and seat adjustments," an upbeat Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad said, announcing that the alliance with the Congress has been finalised.

Speaking at a public meeting in Gaya Wednesday, he said his party will declare the list of candidates for the Lok Sabha polls within two days.

According to RJD leaders close to Lalu Prasad, the alliance with the Congress will be declared at official residence of Rabri Devi, a former chief minister and the RJD chief's wife, later wednesday evening.

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.

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

His aides say he has learnt a bitter lesson since the last Lok Sabha elections when he contemptuously 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.