Patna: The six parties in the Grand Alliance in Bihar are at war with each others on the seat sharing arrangements for the Lok Sabha elections. Nominations for the first phase will start from Monday, but the agreement is still elusive. Leaders of all the six parties have reached New Delhi on Tuesday to have meeting with the Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday.
Rahul Gandhi at Congress rally here last month had declared that the party would contest from front foot in the elections in Bihar. When Lalu Prasad was chief minister of Bihar, the Congress candidates were declared by Lalu himself and not by Congress president. Now,Rahul Gandhi is not allowing RJD to decide Congress fortunes. The war of word became open on Tuesday, when Congress legislature party leader Sadanand Singh claimed the Congress was ready to contest all the 40 seats on its own. If the RJD delays further, the Congress would field its candidates on all the 40 seats, he warned.
National vice-president of the RJD,Shivanand Tiwary,reacted by saying the RJD has strong base among the masses all over the state.It is a dominant party having pan-Bihar following of Lalu Prasad. It can not be dictated by others,he said. Leader of opposition and son of Lalu,Tejeshwi Prasad Yadav held preliminary discussions with the former chief minister Jeetan Ram Manjhi of HAM(S), foremer JDU president Sharad Yadav and RLSP chief Upendra Kushwaha.
