NEW DELHI, 13 September — The central leadership of the Congress party yesterday hardened its stand toward the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) government in Bihar, and reminded the ruling party of the memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed between the two at the time of the formation of Rabri Devi government in the state.
At a meeting here, Congress reviewed its alliance with the ruling RJD in the eastern state, and decided to write RJD chief Laloo Prasad Yadav, to “listen” to its coalition partner. However, Laloo has been turning a deaf ear to the pleas raised by the Congress leaders.
Even if the Congress with its 13 legislators, all of whom are ministers, decides to walk out of the coalition, the Rabri government will not fall. The RJD, on its own, is short of just seven legislators in the house of 242 members. There are a dozen independent legislators supporting the government.
According to the state Congress chief, Dr. Shakeel Ahmed, “the coalition with the RJD would continue.”
“But what the party wants is speedy implementation of the development program, which is not going on at present,” he said.
The RJD chief, however, was allegedly not honoring the MoU, signed between him and many senior Congress leaders that include Dr. Manmohan Singh, Madhavrao Scindia, Mohsina Kidwai, and Pranab Mukherjee. He has only implemented two items of the MoU so far — creation of Jharkhand state and holding of Panchayat (village council) polls.
At the Congress headquarters here, party leaders including, Mahavir Prasad, general secretary in charge of Bihar affairs, reviewed the tie-up and decided to send a letter to the Bihar strongman to act on two reports submitted by Dr. J.J. Irani, managing director of TISCO, and S.C. Jha (an economist) on industrialization and economic growth of Bihar.
Prasad’s letter will also mention the features of MoU, and talk about some of the issues agitating the minds of the people from all walks of life.
