RJD-JD(U)-Congress to fight Bihar Assembly polls together: Sharad Yadav

Says the unity is bound to happen as it is the need of the hour and the nation needs it

Amid speculation over the fate of alliance between JD(U) and RJD ahead of crucial Bihar polls, JD-U President Sharad Yadav today insisted that both the parties will fight the Assembly polls in the state together in alliance with Congress to challenge a resurgent BJP.

"The unity is bound to happen as it is the need of the hour. The nation needs it. All of us will contest election together. Congress, JD-U, RJD, NCP and others will fight together," Yadav told PTI on phone from Patna.

The remarks come a day after a meeting between RJD chief Lalu Prasad's pointsman Bhola Yadav and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who is meeting party legislators and Parliamentarians to get feedback from them about the situation arising out of the logjam over the tie-up.

Prasad had said in Patna yesterday that the reality was different from what was being propagated through "vested interests" and that he is "committed to fighting communal forces".

There has been speculation in media that the BJP could be egging on Prasad not to go for an alliance with Kumar.There has also been speculation that both JD-U and RJD have prepared a plan B to contest the elections separately if the alliance did not materialise.

Scotching the speculation, the JD-U President said, "The unity (of Janata Parivar parties) has already been announced. Now the announcement will materialise. It will materialise as the country needs it."

"I am confident about the unity," he said.

He, however, refused to clarify whether he was referring only to JD-U and RJD contesting together or also to the grand alliance of six parties of erstwhile Janata Parivar.

Asked to give a date by which the alliance between RJD and JD-U will be sealed, Prasad said, "I cannot give a date but unity will happen.