Cong relaxed as Lalu and Paswan join hands

Even as Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and Lok Jan Shakti Party (LJP) announced a seat sharing agreement on Monday for the forthcoming assembly elections in Bihar, the Congress seems not to be worried over the development.

Party's state election in-charge and Chairman of all India minority department Imran Kidwai said the Congress had a long term plan to contest the polls in the state on its own. "With a clear strategy to go all alone, the party has started preparing for the assembly elections right after the Lok Sabha polls," said Kidwai.

"It is first time that the Congress will contest the Bihar assembly election without any alliance with any political party. Even in the past whenever we have contested without any alliance, we did better. Even this time we will definitely perform better and improve our tally," Kidwai told MiD DAY.

Putting an end to all speculations, Lalu Prasad's RJD and Ram Vilas Paswan-led LJP on Monday announced an alliance for the coming assembly elections in Bihar in which they will contest on 168 and 75 seats respectively. "Our alliance (with the RJD) is rock solid and unbreakable. There is no truth in reports that I had been talking to the Congress or that I would become a minister at the Centre," Paswan said.

But, now it is clear that there will be an interesting triangular contest in Bihar during the polls in November 2010 for the 243 assembly seats.

Lalu dominated the press meet to announce the alliance. He did not mention the 'achievements' of Paswan when he was cabinet minister during UPA-I. Lalu will be the alliance's chief ministerial candidate while Paswan's younger brother and LJP's Bihar unit chief Pashupati Kumar Paras will be his deputy.

The LJP chief said he would focus on national politics. In an attempt to change the image of a non-performer during the 15-year rule in Bihar from 1990 to 2005 for which Lalu is still being criticised, the RJD chief sought to assure the people that "the RJD today is not the same RJD."

"The RJD has changed a lot. There were a few people during our rule who brought a bad name to the party," he said.