NEW DELHI: Under attack for his decision to contest separately and resulting in a "division of the secular vote'', Union Minister and Lok Janshakti Party chief Ram Vilas Paswan said the Bihar poll results would not impact national politics or disturb the composition of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) at the Centre.

Reacting to suggestions that his continuation in the UPA should be discussed, Mr. Paswan said a similar situation had prevailed in Jharkhand during the last Assembly elections held early this year. He was responding to a comment made by CPI(M) Polit Bureau member Sitaram Yechury on a television news channel that the approach of a UPA constituent and supporting parties in this election would come up for discussion.

Mr. Paswan recalled that in the February 2005 elections in Jharkhand, Union Minister and Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Lalu Prasad had broken away from the Congress-Jharkhand Mukti Morcha alliance to contest in partial alliance with the CPI and the CPI (M) had contested on its own. As a result, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) could form the Government in Ranchi with the help of a few independent MLAs, he said.

Mr. Paswan felt that the desire for change was strong among the people of Bihar. But Mr. Prasad scuttled any possibility of a rapprochement insisting that his wife Rabri Devi be made Chief Minister after the hung verdict in the February elections.

"They had accused me of inflexibility by insisting on a Muslim as Chief Minister. But Mr. Prasad wanted only Ms. Rabri Devi as Chief Minister. How is it that only I was called unyielding," he asked.

Mr. Paswan congratulated the electorate for the verdict, saying the people had got tired of 15 years of Lalu-Rabri "misrule."

"My best wishes to Nitish Kumar,'' he said.

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