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No confrontation with RJD: Paswan

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, JULY 2. A day after virtually signalling the end of his alliance with the Rashtriya Janata Dal, the Lok Janshakti Party chief, Ram Vilas Paswan, denied that the two parties were headed for a collision. "There is no confrontation between us. All of us came together to defeat the Bharatiya Janata Party during the Lok Sabha elections. We will take a view on the issue at the time of the Bihar Assembly elections," he said.

A few days ago, in Patna, Mr. Paswan had come down heavily on the RJD leadership and called upon his partymen to be prepared to contest the Assembly elections on their own. Today, he told the media here that his call was meant to keep his organisation on its toes and urged the people not to read too much into it. "All I am doing is to keep my cadres and the organisation in a state of readiness. Every political party does this, there is nothing wrong in it."

Mr. Paswan said he was committed to the United Progressive Alliance and promised not to do anything that would in any way help the BJP or weaken the secular alliance. "I have fought against the BJP and will do so again in the future. I am totally committed to the secular forces and will never do anything that will destabilise the Government."

Mr. Paswan recalled that he was among the first to moot the idea of a secular front, and also the fact that he had stood by the Congress president, Sonia Gandhi, when most people doubted her abilities. "My contribution and sacrifice to help throw out the BJP is second to none," he said.

Earlier in the day, he received a shot in the arm with the merger of the Samata Samaj Party headed by Phool Singh Baria, former president of the Bahujan Samaj Party's Madhya Pradesh unit.

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