‘We are going to take on NDA as a team’: Congress, RJD work to end disputes ahead of Bihar polls

Patna: After several days of infighting that saw them clash over five assembly constituencies in poll-bound Bihar, the Congress and RJD on Wednesday sought to reconcile and present a united front against the ruling NDA.

Senior Congress leader Ashok Gehlot, acting on directions from the party’s top leadership, flew to Bihar to hold talks with RJD president Lalu Prasad and his son and political heir, Tejashwi Yadav.

Accompanied by AICC Bihar in-charge Krishna Allavaru, Gehlot first met Prasad at his residence on 10 Circular Road, before proceeding to 1 Polo Road, about a kilometre away, to hold discussions with Yadav. Leaders from both parties described the meetings as “positive and fruitful.”

"I had a good discussion with Lalu ji. An impression has been created as if INDIA bloc was fraying at the seams in Bihar. It is far from the truth. If there is a friendly fight in five or ten seats out of 243, it is not something very big. We are going to take on the NDA as a team. Tomorrow, there will be a press conference where all doubts will be put to rest," Gehlot asserted.

Interestingly, while there are five seats where candidates of both RJD and Congress are in the fray, in three others, the grand old party is pitted against a smaller alliance partner, the CPI.

Gehlot also claimed that the NDA, all five constituents of which announced a seat-sharing formula and declared candidates for respective seats without much fuss, "was even more crisis-ridden than the INDIA bloc, but it is not being talked about because the media is biased in favour of the BJP-led coalition".

The veteran Congress leader, however, evaded queries on whether the Congress has finally given up its reluctance to back 35-year-old Yadav as the multi-party coalition's chief ministerial candidate.

"Do not expect such an announcement from me. Tejashwi Yadav and Rahul Gandhi have great mutual understanding. Their chemistry was for all to see during the Voter Adhikar Yatra," said the former Rajasthan chief minister.

Yadav, on his part, did not seem to be worried as he shared pictures of himself with the Congress leaders with whom he claimed to have "meaningful discussions", barely a couple of hours after he created a fresh buzz with promise of "government employee" status to contractual workers in various departments and a hike, to Rs 30,000 per month, in the remuneration paid to nearly two lakh "community mobilisers" involved in Jeevika self-help groups.

The NDA was quick to realise that their principal challenger was out to woo the state's female voters, whom Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, the JD(U) supremo, has assiduously cultivated as a 'vote bank' over the years. PTI