New Delhi: Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad Yadav on Monday met Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi to discuss alliance in Bihar ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. Sources say that these are preliminary talks. The Antony committee that has been formed to decide alliances will decide and send suggestions to Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and Rahul.
Lalu had met Rahul along with Sonia in Delhi a few days ago, but had refused to confirm if the alliance has been stitched or not. He said that RJD, Congress and Ram Vilas Paswan's Lok Janshakti Party are together in Bihar and will work as one in the state. he had claimed that for RJD all communities are one and the voter is supreme.
The two-time Bihar chief minister has made it clear that he will use all his political might to ensure the defeat of Bharatiya Janata Party and Janata Dal United in Bihar in the Lok Sabha elections.
Convicted in the fodder scam case, Lalu cannot contest in the coming elections, but his release from jail has come as a huge boost for the RJD as it had been decimated in the 2009 Lok Sabha and 2010 Assembly elections.
But with the BJP and JDU ending their 17-year-old alliance in the state in 2013, Lalu once again sees an opportunity to become relevant in the state. RJD MP Prabhunath Singh's massive victory in the Maharajganj Lok Sabha bypolls in June 2013 trouncing JD(U) candidate and state Education Minister PK Shahi by a huge margin of over 1,37,000 votes has also shown that Lalu's famed MY (Muslim-Yadav) combine is still intact and combined with the support of the Rajput community, it can be a force to reckon with in state politics.
The RJD chief dismissed rumours that the MY votebank had cracked after his conviction in a fodder scam case. Lalu blamed the BJP and JDU of spreading canards about him and claimed that these two parties will bite the dust in Lok Sabha elections as they had been fooling the people of Bihar for the last eight years.
But his political future is still uncertain as he has been sentenced to five years in jail and fined Rs 25 lakh in a fodder case - RC 20 A/96 - by a special CBI court. With the sentencing Lalu has also been disqualified from Parliament and debarred from contesting six years after the end of his jail sentence.
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