New Delhi:
Rahul Gandhi's Congress, in the opposition's firing line for firming up a pre-poll alliance with fodder scam convict Lalu Prasad Yadav's Rashtriya Janata Dal or the RJD, has now sought to retrieve some ground by asking its Bihar ally not to field history-sheeters in the national elections, due by May.
As the four UPA partners in Bihar, which include Ram Vilas Paswan's Lok Shakti Party and union minister Sharad Pawar's Nationalist Congress Party, besides the Congress and RJD, get down to clinch the seat-sharing pact for the 40 Lok Sabha constituencies from Bihar, Mr Gandhi has earned a lot of flak from the opposition Janata Dal (United) and the BJP for dumping his "clean politics" commitment to forge an electoral tie-up with Mr Yadav's RJD.
The RJD chief, who was convicted by a special CBI court in Ranchi last year for his involvement in the fodder scam, is presently out on bail. He was sentenced to five years in jail, which rendered him ineligible to contest the Lok Sabha polls.
Wary of the alliance's impact on its prospects both inside and outside the state, the Congress' strategists have now sought to make amends by setting before their partners broad parameters for candidate-selection.
The RJD, LJP and the Congress, which had contested the 2004 general election together, parted ways on the eve of the 2009 polls. The RJD was reduced to four seats in the elections held five years ago, while the Congress was forced to rest content with two. The LJP and the NCP were wiped out. The UPA partners had bagged 29 seats in 2004.
The state is heading for a triangular contest, with the Janata Dal (United) and the BJP forming the other two poles. Nitish Kumar's JD(U), which snapped its ties with the BJP, its ally for 17 years, in June last year after Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi was named its campaign spearhead, is now trying to strike a deal with the CPI.