No Cong, RJD tie-up for bypolls to five Bihar Assembly seats

Patna: The Congress has decided to go alone in the upcoming by-elections to Bihar’s five Assembly seats and announced its candidates for three seats today without consulting its Lok Sabha poll partner RJD. “We have announced candidature of Sadiq Samdani, Nasaar Ahmad and Manoj Kumar Singh from Kochadhaman, Baisi and Chirayya Assembly seats respectively for the upcoming by-elections,” Bihar Pradesh Congress Committee spokesperson Prem Chandra Mishra told reporters. [caption id=“attachment_1464901” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  AFP[/caption] He said neither talks were held with RJD on contesting the by-elections to the five vacant Assembly seats, nor it was considered necessary before announcement of the candidates. The BPCC went ahead with the announcement of its candidates for the three seats in view of the party’s impressive performance in the 2010 Assembly elections from those seats, Mishra said. On the prospect of Congress fielding candidates also from Maharajganj and Sahebpur Kamal Assembly seats, he said no decision had been taken on it yet. It may be mentioned that the RJD and Congress had entered into a pre-poll alliance in Bihar for the Lok Sabha elections with Lalu Prasad’s party contesting 27 parliamentary seats and leaving 12 seats for the Congress and one to the NCP after protracted negotiations among the alliance partners. The alliance had hit rough weather with Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi and Prasad not sharing dais during the former’s election meeting in Aurangabad on 1 April. Congress president Sonia Gandhi, however, shared dais with Kanti Singh, the RJD candidate from Karakat, while addressing an election meeting in favour of Congress candidate and Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar at Sasaram earlier in the day. PTI