Cong praises Lalu as deal is sealed

Congress today hailed Lalu Prasad as an "extremely supportive" ally as the two sides sealed a deal under which it will contest 12 out of 40 Lok Sabha seats in Bihar.
"We have a very good rapport with RJD chief Lalu Prasad. He has been extremely supportive of Congress inside Parliament and outside," party spokesperson Sanjay Jha told reporters here.
Asserting that there was "no dispute" between the two parties, the Congress spokesperson said that the issue of an alliance during any election is a very complex issue that cannot be dealth in a hurry.
While Prasad said that the candidates list for the elections will be declared within two days, sources in Congress said that under the seat sharing agreement, it will get 12 seats, NCP one and RJD will contest on rest 27.

The sources said that while Prasad did not accept Congress' demand of seats like Madhubani, East Chamaparan and Nawadah, it has given it the two seats held by Congress Sasaram and Kishanganj from where Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar and Md Asrarul are MPs.
Besides these two seats, the party is getting Aurangabad Supaul, Purnia, Hajipur, Nalanda, Patna Sahib, Balmikinagar, Jamui, Muzaffarpur, Aurangabad and Gopalganj. On the last two seats, there could be a change also. NCP leader Tarique Anwar would be contesting from Katihar.
Former Kerala Governor Nikhil Kumar, who resigned yesterday, was an MP from Aurangabad seat in past. There is speculation that he may prefer to contest this time from Karakaat seat in place of Aurangabad while Gopalganj seat could be substituted with Gaya, which is currently held by the BJP.