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SharePatna: RJD chief Lalu Prasad, who met Congress president Sonia Gandhi, today said the two parties had strong bonds and that like-minded secular forces should come together to keep the NDA at bay.
"I have a strong bond with Sonia Gandhiji... whatever may come I will never abandon her," Prasad, whose meeting with Gandhi in New Delhi yesterday fuelled speculation that he met the Congress chief in the wake of railway minister Mamata Banerjee's reported plan to seek a CBI inquiry into the alleged job scam in that ministry during his tenure.
Pitching for a secular alliance in Jharkhand and Bihar, the RJD leader urged Gandhi for bringing like-minded secular parties together to keep the NDA at bay. The RJD leader said a secular alliance in Bihar and Jharkhand was the need of the hour to keep the communal forces out. "I discussed the matter and we are waiting for a positive response," he said.
Prasad's meeting with Gandhi came close on the heels of the recent visit of members of an AICC committee to Jharkhand to assess the ground situation there and find out with whom the party could align.
In the Lok Sabha polls in Jharkhand, Congress had entered into an alliance with the JMM, dumping the RJD.
Jubilant after the good performance put up by his party in the bye-elections to 18 assembly seats in Bihar, the RJD leader said, "we have now now qualified for the finals (for the next assembly elections towards end of next year)."
"We will continue the practice for the final (by reaching the people of the state)... we have a number of issues to raise before the people to expose the real face of the Nitish Kumar government", he said.
The RJD leader said he had apologised for the mistake, if any, committed when his party was in power for 15 years in Bihar and said his party had full respect for all upper caste, poor and minorities.
RJD, LJP and Congress bagged 11 of the 18 seats in the just concluded Bihar Assembly by-elections, giving a jolt to the JD(U)-led NDA government in the state.
