After LS jolt, LJP for tie-up with Cong for assembly polls

Having burnt its fingers in the Lok Sabha elections by going it alone, LJP today said it will forge electoral ties with Congress in the assembly elections next year, but ruled out its merger with that party.
    
"I have engaged my party leaders in New Delhi to hold talks with top AICC leaders including Sonia Gandhi's political secretary Ahmed Patel," LJP chief Ram Vilas Paswan told reporters on the sidelines of his party's three-day national camp here.

He said LJP would continue to explore possibilities for firming up electoral ties with Congress.
    
LJP had fought Lok sabha elections without any tie-up with Congress and drawn a blank, with even Paswan himself biting the dust in Hajipur which had once returned him to Parliament with record votes.
    
However, ruling out the possibility of LJP merging with Congress, he said there was no question of such a merger in his lifetime and added that his party will continue to maintain its independent identity.
    
Paswan, whose party contested the Lok Sabha polls with RJD, said LJP would continue its alliance with Lalu Prasad's party to overthrow the Nitish Kumar government in the state.

Inaugurating the camp, Paswan made a fresh demand for a CBI probe into the alleged role of former Governor Buta Singh and the then NDA government in the state in awarding to an "undeserving" firm the repair and construction of Bagmati embankment.