New Delhi: In a major announcement ahead of the Bihar Assembly polls, Samajwadi Party`s (SP) national general secretary Ram Gopal Yadav, who is also the brother of SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, said that Lalu Prasad's Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and Nitish Kumar's ruling Janata Dal United (JD-U) will fight the elections together.
The announcement was made shortly after a Janata Parivar meeting concluded at SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav's residence on Sunday evening.
While speaking to the press, Ram Gopal Yadav said, “(We) will fight elections in Bihar as an alliance.”
“Three members each from RJD and JDU will be part of a six-member committee who will prepare report on seat distribution,” he added.
“It has been decided that election will be contested on the basis of merger,” ANI quoted Yadav as saying.
Asked about the contentious issue of chief ministership, the SP general secretary said,"There is no dispute. These things will be taken care of later."
JD(U) president Sharad Yadav was also present in the meeting. The meeting, first between Lalu and Nitish in many weeks, apparently failed to resolve the differences between the two leaders on the issue of chief ministership.
While JD(U) has been insisting on Nitish to be declared as the chief ministerial candidate, Lalu has maintained that the issue can be addressed later.
The RJD leader had his way as the matter has been kept pending. The meeting came after Sharad Yadav's assertion on Thursday that RJD, JD(U) and Congress will contest the elections together.
In an interesting development, the meeting between Lalu and Nitish was preceded by a visit by the latter to Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi's residence. The Bihar chief minister's meeting with Rahul lasted over an hour amid talks of a broader "secular alliance" to take on BJP.
The discussion with Rahul, which took place ahead of a meeting between the leaders of RJD and JD(U), is being seen as an attempt to show that Nitish is the preferred choice of the Congress.
Amid the face-off between RJD and JD(U) leaders over the chief ministerial candidate, Congress had made it clear that while it is keen on the proposed grand alliance that includes both Lalu and Nitish, it will side with the latter in case the two fail to come together.
Assembly elections in Bihar, where BJP is set for a battle against a united Janata Parivar, are likely to be held sometime in September-October, Chief Election Commissioner Nasim Zaidi had said.
On April 15, six political parties -- including Janata Dal United, Rashtriya Janata Dal and the Samajwadi Party -- had announced a merger to revive the united Janata Party. Mulayam Singh Yadav was named the president of the merged entity.
However, not much progress has been made so far as serious differences cropped up on the question of who will be the chief ministerial candidate between the RJD and JD(U) for the upcoming Bihar Assembly polls.
(With Agency inputs)
