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LJP may go it alone in Bihar

Gargi Parsai

NEW DELHI: In what appears to be a bid to nudge United Progressive Alliance partners to take steps for forming alliances for the Lok Sabha elections, the Lok Jan Shakti Party on Saturday said it was preparing to go it alone in Bihar, where there are 40 seats.

In the last Lok Sabha elections, Lalu Prasad’s Rashtriya Janata Dal had formed an alliance with the LJP and the Congress.

“We are preparing to contest all 40 seats in Bihar and have already finalised our candidates for 16 seats,” LJP president and Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan told journalists here.

“I have had no seat-sharing talks with Mr. Prasad,” he said to a question. In the 2004 elections, the ruling RJD in Bihar gave eight seats to the LJP and four to the Congress.

Mr. Paswan, who recently formed a National Dalit Front, ostensibly to challenge Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati’s leadership of Dalits in Uttar Pradesh, said they had not received permission from the State government to hold a meeting in Lucknow.

“We plan to discuss cases of extortion by the BSP functionaries for the celebration of Ms. Mayawati’s birthday and other atrocities against Dalits elsewhere to sabotage their movements.”

He said his party would observe Ms. Mayawati’s birthday on January 15 as a protest day and demand the resignation of the Chief Minister. Mr. Paswan said that to energise the party from the grass-roots level, it was decided to divide Uttar Pradesh into four zones — eastern, central, western and Bundelkhand.

The Front would hold a meeting in Chennai on January 23.

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