NEW DELHI, 9 February 2004 — Political archrivals and bigwigs of Bihar politics, Rashtriya Janata Dal’s Laloo Prasad Yadav and Ram Vilas Paswan of LJP, appear all set to bury the hatchet. The two are reported to have agreed to join hands ahead of the general elections. The breakthrough is believed to have come at a long meeting here on Friday.
The friends turned foes will be a part of the same political grouping after a long gap of 10 years. Paswan told Arab News that the two parties along with Congress and other like-minded parties would contest the elections together in Bihar.
He expressed confidence that the new secular alliance will be able to defeat the NDA in the coming parliamentary elections. “We will successfully highlight the wrongdoings of the Vajpayee-led NDA government, as all its promises have proved to be hollow,” he added.
Earlier, the Secular Democratic Front (SDF) led by another Bihar heavyweight MP, Pappu Yadav, yesterday merged into the LJP of Paswan.
Addressing the grand function organized to mark the merger, Paswan appeared optimistic about the prospects of the emergence of a viable alternative to the NDA at the center.
“I have always favored the formation of a secular democratic alliance. It will be in place well in time for the parliamentary elections”, he said with confidence.
Paswan said he was sure that in the post-poll scenario, all secular parties would be part of one front. The LJP leader made it clear that as far as he was concerned the NDA was not at all an option.
Meanwhile, the strain between the BJP and Janata Dal-United on seat sharing came out in the open at the national executive meeting of the JD-U, chaired by its chief, George Fernandes.
The executive took note of the growing demand from the BJP for going it alone in a few states and said this would be “problematic.” “The feel good factor” belongs to all NDA allies,” is the message the JD-U executive committee wanted to convey.
Later Fernandes told reporters that “we will contest in as many seats as we did in the last elections. We believe that in the last five years every NDA partner has contributed in the achievements of the central government. If some (BJP) people say they would fight alone, then it would be ‘problematic.’ When we decided to contest as NDA, then such things should not be said. It affects our morale.”
The JD-U demands even those seats in Bihar, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh where it came close second the last time. The party is also seeking seat adjustments with the BJP in Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Orissa, Kerala and Assam.
In the last election, the combined JD-U made seat adjustments with the BJP in 40 seats and “friendly contests” in 20 seats in undivided Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat Rajasthan, Karnataka and Assam. They won 22-seats — 21 in Bihar and one in Karnataka. Later the JD-U split and Samata was formed. Now the two parties are again one.
