The Hindu : Other States / Bihar News : No truck with JD-U, Congress: Paswan

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Friday, Nov 26, 2004

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No truck with JD-U, Congress: Paswan

PATNA, NOV. 25. The Lok Janashakti Party president, Ram Vilas Paswan, today slammed the door on any alliance with either the JD-U or Congress for the Bihar Assembly polls, saying it was a closed chapter now.

"The LJP itself is strong enough to take on the RJD of Lalu Prasad to end the prevailing corruption, `goonda raj' and anarchy in Bihar," Mr. Paswan, at present on a whirlwind tour of the State to mobilise support for his party's November 27 rally here, said.

"Since Nitish Kumar, JD-U Parliamentary Party leader, who is like my younger brother, offered to project me as future Chief Minister and evinced interest in sewing up a poll pact with us, I felt that I should reciprocate and agreed to consider an electoral understanding with the JD-U if it snaps its ties with the communal BJP," he said.

"But the JD-U seems not interested in parting company with the BJP. More so, its president George Fernandes also does not appear to quit as the convenor of the NDA," Mr. Paswan said.

Mr. Paswan said he hoped Mr. Kumar or others in his party, who favour an alliance with the LJP, will not venture to engineer a split in the JD (U) due to the anti-defection law. On the possibility of his alliance with the Congress, Mr. Paswan said he had called on party president Sonia Gandhi a few months ago and stressed the need for launching a viable secular front headed by the Congress, excluding the RJD. "But I am yet to get any response."

Describing people's response to the LJP as "overwhelming", he said the minorities, considered a vote bank of the RJD, too were disenchanted with the present dispensation as little had been done for the uplift.

On the reported complaints of RJD leaders to the UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh about Mr. Paswan's campaign for the ouster of the RJD-Congress government in Bihar, Mr. Paswan said, "I have nothing to say. People know that the UPA as an alliance does not exist in Bihar."

On the reported statement of RJD president and Railway Minister Lalu Prasad and senior party leader Raghuvansh Prasad Singh alleging the LJP chief was patronising "dacoits", Mr. Paswan retorted, "I do not require a certificate from them."

"People know who is what. The whole world knows that RJD leaders are neck-deep in corruption and are patronising criminals running kidnapping and murder rackets in Bihar," Mr. Paswan said.

He accused the state government of "harassing" the LJP leaders by implicating them in false cases of abduction for ransom and other crimes. "People have made up their mind to teach the RJD a lesson in the Bihar assembly poll."

Mr. Paswan said he spoke to the Home Secretary Girish Shankar and Director General of Police Narayan Mishra and informed them about the "repression" of his partymen and said any attempt by the RJD to disturb the proposed LJP rally in Patna on November 27 would be fraught with dire consequence.

The police have raided the premises of LJP MLAs Rajan Tiwari and Vijay Kumar Shukla alias Munna Shukla a number of times during the last few days suspecting their involvement in the kidnapping of two NHPC technocrats.

The senior LJP leader said his party would provide reservation to the dalit Muslims, open up a Muslim university, work for strict enforcement of the Dalit Act and "re-establish rule of law" in the event of coming to power in Bihar.

PTI

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