New Delhi: RJD supremo Lalu Prasad on Tuesday
sought to build bridges with Congress by meeting party chief
Sonia Gandhi and complaining to her about the state of affairs
in Nitish Kumar-ruled Bihar.
Meeting her on the 15th foundation day of the RJD, Lalu
Prasad, whose party was the second largest constituent in
UPA-I but is just an outside supporter in UPA-II, told Gandhi
about the "deteriorating" law and order situation in the
state.
RJD leader Prem Chand Gupta, who accompanied Lalu
Prasad, said that Gandhi heard with concern the situation
caused by the police firing at Forbesganj.
Prasad also apprised her of the precarious power
situation in Bihar as also the imminent danger of floods,
Gupta told agency.
Congress and RJD had seperately contested the Bihar
Assembly elections in November last year. It had witnessed the
worst drubbing for the RJD which had been ruling the state for
a number of years till 2005. Congress also won merely four of
the 243 seats despite Rahul Gandhi virtually leading the
campaign.
Congress and RJD have parted ways since the last Lok
Sabha elections with Lalu along with Lok Janshakti Party
headed by Ram Vilas Paswan joining hands to contest all seats
in the Parliamentary polls.
AICC office bearers as also state Congress leaders do not
see any possibility of the two parties working together in
Bihar, where Congress had played a second fiddle to RJD for a
number of years.
RJD has four members in the current Lok Sabha as against
27 in the previous one which had helped the Congress-led UPA
to come to power for the first time in May 2004 as the `feel
good` balloon of the BJP-led NDA got punctured.
A report from Patna said the foundation day celebrations
of the RJD there were a low key affair.
PTI
