Lalu Prasad today met Rahul Gandhi for the second time this month amid indications that Congress and RJD were working out the nitty-gritty of forging a "secular alliance" in Bihar.
The RJD chief's meeting is significant as it took place a day after senior Congress leader Digvijay Singh met LJP chief Ram Vilas Paswan to discuss the issue. Singh is a strong votary of secular alliance and had spoken to Prasad in last few days as well.
Both LJP and RJD have been praising Congress and making it clear that they want the ruling party to be an integral part of the "secular alliance" in Bihar, having 40 parliamentary seats.
Senior Congress leaders have said that a decision on alliance is expected "very soon". There are two views in Congress over the issue but a dominant section of leaders favour an alliance with Prasad to fight a resurgent BJP.
LJP, which had made it clear that it was with Congress, has been off late inching closer to Nitish Kumar's JD(U) in Bihar but said it had left the final decision on including RJD or JD(U) in the "secular alliance" to the Congress. While the RJD chief has met Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Rahul earlier as well, Paswan also had a meeting with the Congress chief sometime back.
However, the AICC remained ambivalent on the issue of alliance in Bihar as well as in Tamil Nadu with senior spokesperson Mukul Wasnik saying that there is a committee headed by AK Antony to examine the issue and it will first formulate a view. Wasnik, who had been the AICC general secretary in-charge for Bihar in past however, remained tighlipped about it. "I was once upon the in-charge of Bihar. Now there is somebody else and it won't be appropriate for me to comment what is correct to or what is no," he said when asked whether it will be appropriate for Congress to ally with Prasad, who has been convicted in fodder scam.
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