Paswan announces tieup, Cong demurs

The Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) will be withdrawing at least 15 nominations filed by it for the first phase of polling in Bihar on February 3, in accordance with a pre-poll alliance with the Congress on the 80 "non-RJD" seats that the Congress is fighting on its own.

Making the announcement, LJP chief and Union Steel Minister Ram Vilas Paswan said the Congress had also agreed to withdraw nominations from four assembly seats in a reciprocal move including Imamganj, Ratiganj, Dinara and Banka. The arrangement was announced after a meeting at Human Resource Development Minister Arjun Singh's house today.

"The Congress had originally demanded that we withdraw from 22 out of the 64 seats that will go into polls on February 3, we have agreed to withdraw 15 names, they will be withdrawing from four seats, a similar arrangement will be made for the other two phases of polling," he said. He added the arrangement could be considered a "pre-poll alliance".

While Paswan announced the arrangement, the Congress denied any formal seat sharing and said that "talks were on" with everyone on the issue of seat sharing. Paswan, however, insisted that the arrangement had been entered into formally and that Congress and LJP state leaders will jointly campaign in Bihar.

Among those who attended today's meeting included senior Congress leaders Ahmad Patel, Mohsina Kidwai, M L Fotedar and the party in charge for Bihar, Harikesh Bahadur.

On the issue of the interim report of the Bannerjee Commission on the Godhra train incident, Paswan said whatever political mileage RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav wanted to milk out of the report would be obvious from the results of the elections.

"I resigned from the NDA government over Gujarat, and several people reacted passionately, where was Lalu Prasad then?" asked Paswan. "What the Banerjee Commission is saying now was already stated by me when I resigned, so what's new?"

"There are those who do politics on minority vote bank and then are others who are genuine well wishers, the people know the difference," he added. He made it very clear that his party will oppose Lalu Prasad Yadav vehemently, and that the results of the elections will reveal the true picture.

In Jharkhand the LJP has entered into an alliance will the All Jharkhand Students Union (AJSU), and will be fighting 37 seats in the state.