Lalu may allocate more seats to Congress, Left

The impending Assembly elections in Bihar have raised the bogey of electoral alliances and seat adjustment among the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) parties.

While the last time round, negotiations between the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and the Congress were acrimonious, this time RJD chief Lalu Prasad is expected to be generous with not just the Congress but other parties such as the CPI(M) and the NCP as well.

The one party that remains problematic in this picture of happy unity is the Ram Vilas Paswan-led Lok Janashakti Party (LJP). The LJP had won 29 seats in the last Assembly polls. But 16 of the 29 MLAs later defected to the Janata Dal(United).

It was Paswan's insistence on not providing support to either an RJD government or a government in which the BJP was a part that led to a stalemate in the state. While the Congress would like both Paswan and Prasad to kiss and make up, this is not likely to happen.

"Paswan's problem is that he fought elections on a largely anti-RJD plank. So joining hands with Prasad now will be like committing political suicide," said a senior RJD leader. "But his people have deserted him. That makes him vulnerable this time round," he added.

According to sources close to the RJD chief, the railway minister is also reluctant to enter into any pact with the LJP. "He feels Paswan might lean on the Congress in the name of the UPA unity to get a better deal than he deserves," said a RJD leader.

"Paswan's party is not going to do well in these elections, since the ground has been removed from under him by defections. Yet you will see that once elections are announced, he will call a national executive of his party and publicly demand not just the 29 seats that he won the last time, but an active consideration of the 38 seats where the LJP stood second," he added.

"He will want more than he deserves in today's political atmosphere. If he manages a good deal, he will be able to save face as well, to say that despite caving in to the RJD-UPA he did it on his own terms," he said.

But the latest buzz between the two parties confirm that the celebrations started too soon.