UPA to promise job quota to Muslims in Bihar

The Rashtriya Janata Dal-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) coalition in Bihar seems to be readying a campaign plan for the coming polls much different from the one launched for the last Assembly elections in the state six months ago.

A united front of the Congress, the RJD and the CPI(M), reservations for Muslims, educational opportunity for the most backward classes and joint rallies by Sonia Gandhi and Lalu Prasad are to be the main plank of the campaign.

They will be addressing at least three joint meetings, which will also be attended by Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief.

The promise of reserving jobs for Muslims is a move aimed at neutralising Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) chief Ramvilas Paswan's call for a Muslim chief minister.

The Godhra incident, however, is not going to be played up. But the main plank will be development in a Maharashtra-like campaign that will emphasise the need for one party ruling at the Centre and in the state.

"Like in Maharashtra, the main message of the campaign will be to tell the people that development in Bihar was slow because a hostile government was in power at the Centre since 1991, and now there appears to a historical opportunity for the state to change all that," said a source close to the RJD chief.

"Lalu has learnt valuable lessons from his previous campaign six months ago.

"Despite what everyone says, development is an issue, especially since 15 years of RJD rule has made significant contributions towards establishing social justice in the state. Also, the last time round, there were errors in the distribution of tickets on about 40 seats. This time, these errors are to be corrected," said the source.

According to sources in the Congress, the party is determined to make up for its mistakes it made during the last elections.

This time, round, Digvijay Singh has been a more pragmatic bargainer for seats than Arjun Singh and Makhan Lal Fotedar. The Congress, which could not see double figures in the state despite having contested 80 seats, is going in for a more realistic adjustment on 25 seats with the RJD.

There appears to be no confusion either on whether to go with Prasad or Paswan.

Besides, Gandhi is to campaign and address rallies along with Prasad, to put her weight firmly behind the alliance. On the other hand, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) appears to be fairly confident of repeating or bettering their performance in the state. But the crisis in the BJP has upped the morale of the UPA.

"Six months are a long time in politics. We are in for a different campaign," said an aide of Lalu.