The RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav on Thursday asserted that he would never snap ties with the Ram Vilas Paswan-led Lok Jan Shakti party and would even go to an extra mile to keep the alliance intact. He, however, conceded that the two parties are still engaged in a hard bargain over seat-adjustment for this year’s Bihar Assembly elections.
Speaking to this newspaper, Mr Yadav dismissed any fissure in the relations of the two parties but conceded that the seat-adjustment talks are still on. He stated that the two parties are taking into consideration various factors before formalising the seat-adjustment.
“I will never allow any break up with Paswan. People are not able to digest our coming together. Bihar mein toh taakat hamaara hai...dalit hai ...backward hai (The strength in Bihar is with us. The dalits and backwards are with us). Others tried to stop Paswan from coming to us but in the end we got him on our side,” said Mr Yadav.
The RJD chief went on to say that the state chiefs of the two parties are sorting out various issues before formalising the seat-adjustment. “We can not win all seats by putting candidates everywhere, we have to look into winnability factor and also have to take into account the impact of delimitation exercise on Assembly constituencies,” Mr Yadav told this newspaper, while adding that the agreement between the two parties would be reasonable.
Striking a liberal stance towards Paswan-led LJP, Mr Yadav stated that despite hard bargaining going on between the two parties he would be ready to concede five to 10 extra seats to the LJP.
“I made a sacrifice to ensure that Mr Pasawn got elected to the Rajya Sabha. It is the communal forces who want to create rift between us. We have asked the state chiefs of our parties to sort out all matters. Hoga toh hum taiyar hain paanch dus seat aur dene ke liye (If need be, we am ready to give five to 10 seats extra),” said Mr Yadav.
However, the RJD chief hinted that the two parties would take a little longer to arrive at seat-adjustment.