Nitish ready to join hands with Paswan

Janata Dal (U) parliamentary party leader Nitish Kumar today asked Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) chief Ram Vilas Paswan to head a "grand alliance" to oust Lalu Prasad's Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) in the polls to Bihar Assembly, due early next year.

"We (JD-U) have extended invitation to Paswan from the core of our hearts to lead a grand alliance against the RJD in Bihar to rid the state of corrupt and inefficient rule," he told reporters here.

He said there was "little logic" in Paswan's decision that his party would go it alone in the Assembly elections when the "political reality" was that no party was in a position to take on the RJD alone.

"The need of the hour is to form a formidable anti-Lalu alliance and if the JD(U), the BJP and the LJP join hands, the RJD would be rooted out from power."

"There will be no murmuring if Paswan accepts the leadership of the grand alliance of JD(U), the LJP and the BJP in the Assembly polls," Kumar said.

JD(U) chief George Fernandes had last week offered to project Paswan as the chief ministerial candidate of the proposed alliance if he decided to join hands with the National Democratic Alliance.

Meanwhile, the CPI-ML(Liberation) said it was prepared to join hands with the JD (U) and the LJP to uproot the RJD dispensation in the coming Assembly elections, provided both parties dissociated from the BJP and the Congress.

CPI-ML central committee member KD Yadav said the party was prepared to join hands with the JD(U) and the LJP to form a Left democratic alliance to free Bihar from the "misrule of the RJD", provided the JD(U) severed its ties with the BJP and the LJP with the Congress.