With Lalu Prasad out on bail, Cong-RJD-LJP tie-up seems to be on cards in Bihar

New Delhi: With Lalu Prasad out on bail, an alliance appears to be on the cards among Congress, RJD and LJP for the Lok Sabha polls in Bihar.

Bihar Congress chief Ashok Chowdhary on Thursday met party Vice President Rahul Gandhi, a day after he held consultations with party chief Sonia Gandhi and briefed both of them about the prevailing political scenario in the state after the break-up of BJP-JD(U) alliance.

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Chowdhary's meeting with the Congress Vice President at his residence took place for half-an-hour. He had met Sonia Gandhi in Parliament House on Wednesday. He was called by both the leaders for a briefing about the situation in the state.

An indication of Congress warming up to the RJD chief was available, when the Congress President called to greet him after he got bail in a fodder scam case.

"Congress President Sonia Gandhi had telephoned me after my release from Ranchi jail. She graciously extended greetings to me and expressed happiness over my release," Prasad had told reporters in Patna on Wednesday.

Prasad, who was the Railway Minister in the UPA-I government and is considered very close to the Congress chief, had fallen out during UPA-II after an acrimony over seat sharing for 2009 Lok Sabha polls, which resulted in break-up of the RJD-LJP and Congress alliance.

RJD was the second largest constitutent in UPA-I after Congress with 22 seats in Lok Sabha. There is a feeling in Congress that an alliance with RJD and LJP could repeat the 2004 magic, when the three parties had together walked away with 29 of the 40 seats in the states.

Congress had bagged three seats while LJP had got four. When RJD-LJP broke away from Congress in 2009, the results were disastrous for them.

While RJD won four seats, Congress won two and LJP failed to open its account with its chief Ram Vilas Paswan suffering a humiliating defeat in his home turf Hajipur. The issue of alliance had earlier cropped up last when Rahul Gandhi had held a meeting with Chowdhary and Bihar CLP leader Sadanand Singh.

Sources say that while a large number of leaders from Bihar are in favour of an alliance with Prasad's RJD, some senior leaders at the Centre, stated to be close to Rahul Gandhi, prefer Nitish Kumar due to his clean image.

Moreover at a time when Congress has taken credit for the passage of the Lokpal Bill and Rahul Gandhi has talked about bringing anti-corruption code to fight graft, the party may find it difficult to ally with RJD after Prasad's conviction in the fodder scam.

"There is a clear indication that we will go in for an alliance in Bihar this time. However, some more clarity is needed about which party we are going to ally with," said a leader, who is part of the consultations.

NCP leader Tarique Anwar, who was in past the chief of Bihar Pradesh Congress Committee, had last month made a strong pitch for a ‘grand secular alliance’ in Bihar.