PATNA: Rashtriya Janata Dal chief and Railway Minister Lalu Prasad on Friday said his party was ready to accept the verdict of the Supreme Court in the Bihar Assembly dissolution case but would go ahead with the present election process.

Speaking to reporters after releasing the first list of 51 RJD candidates here, he declined to comment on the Supreme Court's action but said, "we will do our work."

Mr. Prasad sprang a surprise, extending support to the Forward Bloc candidate in Nalanda, Ram Naresh Singh, to engage the National Democratic Alliance nominee there in a direct fight.

The Forward Bloc has a seat-sharing arrangement with the Lok Jan Shakti Party (LJP) and the Communist Party of India (CPI), which have formed an alliance against the RJD.

Mr. Prasad said the Congress, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and the Nationalist Congress Party also agreed to support the FB nominee. The alliance would release its common minimum programme on October 4, Mr. Prasad refused to entertain any question on who would lead the State in case of victory of the combine. He just said: "it is understood". He never named his wife and former Chief Minister, Rabri Devi.

The RJD has given the ticket to all its MLAs in the dissolved House. Continuing with its Muslim-Yadav combination, the party distributed a major chunk of the ticket to aspirants from these communities.

"Great injustice"

PTI reports:

Assailing the National Democratic Alliance, Mr. Prasad said it had done "great injustice" to Bihar, not compensating it for the loss of resource-rich Jharkhand. Pointing out that 20-25 per cent of the people were yet to receive the Elector's Photo Identity Card, he demanded that the Election Commission ensure that every voter was given the EPIC or allowed to vote on the strength of other documents.

BJP, JD (U) to start campaign on October 4

Our New Delhi Special Correspondent reports:

The Janata Dal (United) and the Bhartiya Janata Party will contest the Bihar Assembly elections on the plank of governance, development and law and order.

Addressing a joint press conference with BJP leader Arun Jaitley here, National Democratic Alliance's Chief Ministerial candidate Nitish Kumar said both parties had a "perfect understanding." They would come out with separate manifestos but would conduct a joint campaign. They would have a common minimum programme if elected.

Star performers

The parties would launch their campaign on October 4. Among the BJP's star campaigners would be Shatrughan Sinha, Hema Malini and Vinod Khanna.

The JD (U) will contest 141 seats and the BJP 102 in the 243-member Assembly. Between themselves the parties will accommodate the 24 Lok Jan Shakti Party and Independent MLAs, who pledged their support to them before the House was dissolved.

Mr. Kumar said the combine was "fully prepared" to face elections unlike the United Progressive Alliance or the LJP-CPI alliance, which was "divided." The pre-election joint "nyaya yatra" gave the BJP and the JD (U) the confidence that people were with them.

Declining to say anything on the status of the petition before the Supreme Court challenging the dissolution of the Assembly, Mr Kumar said it would be "neither possible nor appropriate'' for him to comment. "We will react to the situation and take action when the time comes."

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