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Sanjay Basak | New Delhi | March 21: RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav, responding to the Congress’ decision to contest 37 of the 40 parliamentary seats in Bihar, said, "Why are they leaving three seats? Let them contest all 40 seats."
The leaving of three seats — two for Lalu Yadav and one for LJP chief Ram Vilas Paswan, was the Congress’ retaliation to moves by the RJD and LJP to electorally squeeze the Congress out of Bihar. While the RJD chief would be contesting from Chhapra and Pataliputra, Mr Paswan is to fight from Hajipur.
Signalling a rift in the UPA, Mr Lalu Yadav went on to declare that both his outfit and the LJP would now put up candidates in the three Lok Sabha constituencies now held by the Congress — Madhubani, Aurangabad and Sasaram.
AICC general secretary Digvijay Singh, justifying the party’s decision, said: "We respect the alliance and the allies. But if some political development takes place in the form of unilateral announcements of seats by the allies, we have to take a stand." Senior party leader M. Veerappa Moily, however, described the RJD-LJP decision as "unfortunate". In an attempt to end speculation that he could tilt towards the Third Front in a post-poll scenario, Mr Lalu Yadav clarified that he has "nothing to do with the Third Front". He also tried to club the Samajwadi Party as an UPA ally by saying the RJD, LJP and SP would get a "a good number of seats for the UPA to form the next government". The RJD supremo indicated he would be campaigning for the SP in UP while SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav would do the same for the RJD-LJP in Bihar.
Refuting speculation that he would resign from the Union Cabinet, Mr Yadav said he continued to hold "Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in high esteem" and insisted the "RJD is still with the UPA".
Yet he showed his displeasure at the Congress’ decision to field 37 candidates. "If the Congress is strong, why did it demand seats from us? Instead it should have been the other way round," he said. The RJD chief believes the Congress’ move to contest 37 seats in Bihar was not to win berths, but to ascertain its strength in the state. He also took a dig at the Congress for taking in his estranged brother-in-law, Sadhu Yadav. "By inducting leaders like Sadhu Yadav, Ramai Ram and others from the RJD the Congress is displaying the strength of its leadership in Bihar," he quipped. Asking the media not to describe Sadhu Yadav as his brother-in-law, Mr Lalu Yadav felt his desertion would not weaken the RJD. Instead, he said, he felt "purified" by Sadhu Yadav’s departure since he had "many more brothers-in-law".
The RJD chief blamed a section in the Congress close to Mrs Sonia Gandhi for the failure of the seat-sharing arrangements between the Congress and the RJD and LJP.
"Whatever they had will also go away now. Congress leaders might be arguing that they had got four seats and won three of them in the last election, but the fact is that the Congress had workers there but the voters were ours," Mr Lalu Yadav said, adding, "I have nothing to do with the Congress in Bihar. If they contest on our home turf, we will do the same."
Source: The Asian Age
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The leaving of three seats — two for Lalu Yadav and one for LJP chief Ram Vilas Paswan, was the Congress’ retaliation to moves by the RJD and LJP to electorally squeeze the Congress out of Bihar. While the RJD chief would be contesting from Chhapra and Pataliputra, Mr Paswan is to fight from Hajipur.
Signalling a rift in the UPA, Mr Lalu Yadav went on to declare that both his outfit and the LJP would now put up candidates in the three Lok Sabha constituencies now held by the Congress — Madhubani, Aurangabad and Sasaram.
AICC general secretary Digvijay Singh, justifying the party’s decision, said: "We respect the alliance and the allies. But if some political development takes place in the form of unilateral announcements of seats by the allies, we have to take a stand." Senior party leader M. Veerappa Moily, however, described the RJD-LJP decision as "unfortunate". In an attempt to end speculation that he could tilt towards the Third Front in a post-poll scenario, Mr Lalu Yadav clarified that he has "nothing to do with the Third Front". He also tried to club the Samajwadi Party as an UPA ally by saying the RJD, LJP and SP would get a "a good number of seats for the UPA to form the next government". The RJD supremo indicated he would be campaigning for the SP in UP while SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav would do the same for the RJD-LJP in Bihar.
Refuting speculation that he would resign from the Union Cabinet, Mr Yadav said he continued to hold "Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in high esteem" and insisted the "RJD is still with the UPA".
Yet he showed his displeasure at the Congress’ decision to field 37 candidates. "If the Congress is strong, why did it demand seats from us? Instead it should have been the other way round," he said. The RJD chief believes the Congress’ move to contest 37 seats in Bihar was not to win berths, but to ascertain its strength in the state. He also took a dig at the Congress for taking in his estranged brother-in-law, Sadhu Yadav. "By inducting leaders like Sadhu Yadav, Ramai Ram and others from the RJD the Congress is displaying the strength of its leadership in Bihar," he quipped. Asking the media not to describe Sadhu Yadav as his brother-in-law, Mr Lalu Yadav felt his desertion would not weaken the RJD. Instead, he said, he felt "purified" by Sadhu Yadav’s departure since he had "many more brothers-in-law".
The RJD chief blamed a section in the Congress close to Mrs Sonia Gandhi for the failure of the seat-sharing arrangements between the Congress and the RJD and LJP.
"Whatever they had will also go away now. Congress leaders might be arguing that they had got four seats and won three of them in the last election, but the fact is that the Congress had workers there but the voters were ours," Mr Lalu Yadav said, adding, "I have nothing to do with the Congress in Bihar. If they contest on our home turf, we will do the same."
Source: The Asian Age
.::. All my articles can be view here: MELTED HEARTS .::.
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