RJD gets 168, LJP 75, crown for Lalu
After a gap of 13 years, RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav is back as a chief ministerial candidate, with the RJD-LJP alliance on Monday making public their seat adjustment for this year’s Bihar Assembly elections.
As per the seat adjustment announced jointly by Mr Yadav and Mr Ram Vilas Paswan on Monday, the RJD will contest a total of 168 seats, while the LJP will get 75 constituencies. While the two leaders asserted that their alliance is rock solid, Mr Paswan apparently succeeded in getting a good deal by getting his younger brother and state LJP chief Pashupati Kumar Paras as the candidate of the post of deputy chief minister.
Mr Yadav vowed that if the people in the state give mandate to the RJD-LJP alliance he would replicate the success story of the Indian Railways in Bihar also. “We will form the government. The way the success story of the Indian Railways was recognised world wide, so will I show to the people of Bihar what we can do for the state,” said Mr Yadav, hastening to add that the RJD is now changed and all those who brought bad name to him in the past have left the party.
Mr Paswan spelt out the agreement between the two parties. “We broadly have two agreements. First is that the RJD will contest 168 seats and the LJP 75. Secondly, Laluji will be the chief ministerial candidate of the alliance and Pashupati Kumar Paswan will be the candidate for deputy chief minister,” said Mr Paswan.
Mr Paswan went on dismiss speculations of him holding talks with the Congress earlier.
Dismissing speculation of hiccups before the seat adjustment, Mr Yadav asserted that the alliance is “rock solid”. “This alliance is not only for the present but it will continue also in the future,” said Mr Yadav.
However, on the fate of his wife, Rabri Devi, who was Leader of the Opposition in the Bihar Assembly, Mr Yadav gestured his finger and stated that “husband and wife are one”. It was in 1997 that Mr Yadav, after being the Bihar chief minister for seven years, had to install Ms Rabri Devi, after having been chargesheeted by the CBI in the fodder scam. Ms Rabri Devi was the Bihar CM for eight years.
Post new comment