Bihar Congress President Meets Lalu Yadav

Patna: Amid speculation that the RJD distributed tickets for the Lok Sabha polls to four candidates, Congress state president Akhilesh Prasad Singh on Thursday met RJD Chief Lalu Yadav at his residence in Patna.

Mahagathbandhan insiders have revealed that the Congress leadership was upset with the RJD for allocating tickets to candidates without an official announcement on seat sharing. Reports suggest that Lalu Yadav personally met candidates and distributed party symbols and tickets for the Constituencies Gaya, Aurangabad, Nawada, and Jamui.

After a meeting with the RJD Chief, the Congress leader said that the seat-sharing issue will be resolved shortly. However, he refrained from responding to queries about reports suggesting that Lalu Yadav allocated tickets for all four Lok Sabha constituencies going to polls in the first phase.

“I came here to meet him (Lalu Yadav). This is not the first time, I keep meeting him regularly”, Congress state president Akhilesh Prasad Singh said.

He also added that the seat sharing among the alliance partners will be decided in a few days. Besides the RJD and Congress, the Mahagathbandhan in Bihar comprises three left parties CPI(ML), CPI, and CPM.

The development follows a decision by the RJD parliamentary board to empower Lalu Yadav to make decisions regarding the party’s candidates and alliance partners. Following a meeting of its state and national parliamentary party, the RJD reportedly assigned the party symbol to Kumar Sarvajeet for the reserved Gaya Lok Sabha seat.

According to sources, Lalu Yadav also tipped Abhay Kushwaha to prepare to contest from Aurangabad seat. Mr. Kushwaha, a former JD(U) MLA joined the RJD on Wednesday.

The allocation of Aurangabad to RJD candidates may upset the Congress party, which believes that it has a strong chance of winning from the constituency.

RJD insiders said that Lalu Yadav has also decided to field party state president Jagdanand Singh’s son Sudhakar from Buxar seat. He is also likely to consider gangster turned politician Munna Shukla from Vaishali.