With Lalu on bail, Cong-RJD-LJP alliance on cards
20 Dec 2013 11:13 PM GMT
Bihar Congress chief Ashok Chowdhary on Thursday met party vice president Rahul Gandhi, a day after he held consultations with party chief Sonia Gandhi and briefed both of them about the prevailing political scenario in the state after the break-up of BJP-JD(U) alliance.
Chowdhary’s meeting with the Congress vice president at his residence took place for half-an-hour. He had met Sonia Gandhi in Parliament House on Wednesday. He was called by both the leaders for a briefing about the situation in the state.
An indication of Congress warming up to the RJD chief was available, when the Congress president called to greet him after he got bail in a fooder scam case. ‘Congress president Sonia Gandhi had telephoned me after my release from Ranchi jail. She graciously extended greetings to me and expressed happiness over my release,’ Prasad had told reporters in Patna on Wednesday.
Prasad, who was the railway minister in the UPA-I government and is considered very close to the Congress chief, had fallen out during UPA-II after an acrimony over seat sharing for 2009 Lok Sabha polls, which resulted in break up of the RJD-LJP and Congress alliance.
RJD was the second largest constitutent in UPA-I after Congress with 22 seats in Lok Sabha. There is a feeling in Congress that an alliance with RJD and LJP could repeat the 2004 magic, when the three parties had together walked away with 29 of the 40 seats in the states.
Congress had bagged three seats while LJP had got four. When RJD-LJP broke away from Congress in 2009, the results were disastrous for them. While RJD won four seats, Congress won two and LJP failed to open its account with its chief Ram Vilas Paswan suffering a humiliating defeat in his home turf Hajipur.
Chowdhary’s meeting with the Congress vice president at his residence took place for half-an-hour. He had met Sonia Gandhi in Parliament House on Wednesday. He was called by both the leaders for a briefing about the situation in the state.
An indication of Congress warming up to the RJD chief was available, when the Congress president called to greet him after he got bail in a fooder scam case. ‘Congress president Sonia Gandhi had telephoned me after my release from Ranchi jail. She graciously extended greetings to me and expressed happiness over my release,’ Prasad had told reporters in Patna on Wednesday.
Prasad, who was the railway minister in the UPA-I government and is considered very close to the Congress chief, had fallen out during UPA-II after an acrimony over seat sharing for 2009 Lok Sabha polls, which resulted in break up of the RJD-LJP and Congress alliance.
RJD was the second largest constitutent in UPA-I after Congress with 22 seats in Lok Sabha. There is a feeling in Congress that an alliance with RJD and LJP could repeat the 2004 magic, when the three parties had together walked away with 29 of the 40 seats in the states.
Congress had bagged three seats while LJP had got four. When RJD-LJP broke away from Congress in 2009, the results were disastrous for them. While RJD won four seats, Congress won two and LJP failed to open its account with its chief Ram Vilas Paswan suffering a humiliating defeat in his home turf Hajipur.
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