After LJP-BJP tie up, Congress pressurised to declare Bihar alliance

Visibly alarmed by BJP-LJP tie-up, pressure is building up in Congress in Bihar to form an alliance for the Lok Sabha polls. “Ambiguity on alliance issue should end as early as possible in Bihar”, party General Secretary Shakeel Ahmed said, reflecting the opinion of a large section of members from Bihar. [caption id=“attachment_1413029” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Paswan’s choice to ally with BJP has added to Congress’ woes in Bihar. PTI.[/caption] A high level committee headed by senior leader A K Antony debating potential alliances for Congress in various states. The committee has to make a decision on whether the Congress should tie-up with Rashtriya Janta Dal (RJD), ruling Janta Dal (United) led by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar or fly solo. In the last Lok Sabha polls, Congress contested on its own as RJD and Ram Vilas Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party parted ways with the UPA, and contested together. Congress managed to get only two of the 40 seats in the state. However, in the upcoming polls, there is no likelihood of Congress joining hands with JD-U due to Nitish’s decision to go with 11-party non-Congress, non-BJP formation. State Congress leaders noted that Paswan chose to align with the NDA after he failed to finalise the seat arrangements with RJD as part of a larger Congress-RJD-LJP tie up. Ahmed’s remarks came at a time due to general talk within the party that the Congress alliance with Lalu Prasad’s RJD would be finalised soon. Top Congress leaders had earlier maintained that an effective secular alliance in Bihar has to have three parties in such a formation. The dilemma was only about whether to go with RJD having a “tainted” leader like Lalu Prasad or Nitish’s JD-U whose image has been clean. However, now the Ram Vilas Paswan-led party stitched up a pre-poll alliance with BJP last night returning to the NDA fold, 12 years after it quit over Gujarat riots. LJP will fight seven out of the 40 Lok Sabha seats in Bihar under a seat-sharing deal. Paswan announced a tie-up with BJP, after he alleged that there was lack of seriousness on the issue of alliance when he was talking to Congress and RJD. Paswan said that he was forced to look for an alternative after being “humiliated”. PTI