Sonia, Lalu fail to reach seat-sharing pact

The ongoing seat-sharing talks between the Congress, the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and the Left parties for the Assembly polls in Bihar remained inconclusive today, despite the intervention of Congress chief Sonia Gandhi.

RJD chief Lalu Prasad, who had an hour-long meeting with Gandhi at 10 Janpath in the morning, had nothing to say than a promise to keep the "secular" alliance in Bihar going. "We have apprised Gandhi of the ground situation. We want the seat-sharing arrangement on a certain basis," he said. Lalu, however, hinted that there could be some friendly contests in Jharkhand and Bihar.

He said the ruling United Progressive Alliance at the Centre would remain intact and not even a "deluge" could affect it. The Gandhi-Lalu meeting was also attended by senior Congress leaders Arjun Singh, ML Fotedar and Ahmed Patel.

After his meeting, Lalu drove to the AK Gopalan Bhavan, the CPI (M) headquarters, to hold negotiations with the Left parties and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).

CPI(M) General Secretary Harkishan Singh Surjeet, Sitaram Yechury, CPI leader D Raja, NCP leader Tariq Anwar were present at the meeting where the Jharkhand pact between the Congress and the JMM was discussed at length. According to sources, all UPA partners were upset over the manner in which the Congress had "unilaterally" sealed the pact.

"We discussed all issues relating to seat sharing. Our effort is to ensure that all secular forces come together in Bihar to counter the communal forc-es," Yechury said after the meeting. The CPI, which had identified 32 seats in Bihar, scaled it down to 24. The CPI(M) is also demanding around 20 seats.

The Congress has been insisting on a sizeable number of seats claiming that its position had considerably improved since the last Assembly polls in Bihar. It has claimed 104 seats but might be willing to scale it down to 70. The RJD is not willing to offer the Congress anything more than 30 seats at the moment.

Meanwhile, Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) leader Ramvilas Paswan today had an "unscheduled" meeting with Gandhi during which he offered chief ministership to her party in Bihar if it tied up with the LJP.

He said he was invited by Gandhi for the meeting, which took place soon after her hour-long meeting with Prasad.

The RJD itself seems to be facing some difficulties of its own with Taslimuddin resigning as the chairman of the RJD parliamentary board.

He has criticised Prasad for being "anti-Muslim". He is said to be upset over being ignored on consultations over ticket distribution for the elections.