It's up to Lalu Yadav and Ram Vilas Paswan to decide if they are with the UPA, that's what Congress spokesperson Veerappa Moily said on Friday when the two leaders skipped a meeting of the union cabinet.
Lalu for his part said the cabinet meeting has nothing to do with his railways ministry which is why is he not attending.
Lalu and Paswan are apparently sulking over Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's praise of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. Lalu Prasad and Ram Vilas Paswan on Friday skipped a meeting of the union cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
The RJD and LJP leaders did not turn up for the meeting which decided to revoke the President's rule in Meghalaya.
While Prasad was in Patna, Paswan, who along with RJD and Samajwadi Party formed a "Fourth Front" after seat-sharing arrangement with Congress for Lok Sabha polls failed, was busy campaigning in Kolkata.
For the record, Paswan said he could not attend the meeting due to prior engagement.
"We already had a prior engagement, as there was no cabinet agenda on Friday. On Thursday we got to know about the cabinet meeting. So, we informed the PMO that we won't be present. We are part of the UPA and we will remain with the UPA," Paswan clarified.
Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) supremo Sharad Pawar also did not attend the cabinet meet.
It's noteworthy that in the recent past Lalu Prasad has been at loggerheads with the Congress. His party is fighting the polls in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh without the Congress. The RJD has seat arrangements with Paswan's LJP and Mulayam's SP in both the states.
Asked whether RJD and LJP are drifting away from UPA, Paswan said, "There is no question of drifting. We are already part of UPA and will remain in UPA."
Denying any "misunderstanding" between Congress and RJD and LJP in the wake of Gandhi's praise of Kumar, Paswan said, "There is no misunderstanding because Congress has already clarified what Rahul meant to say."
While Lalu stayed away, his party colleagues P C Gupta and Raghuvansh Prasad attended the cabinet meeting.
Commenting on the West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee's statement on Wednesday that Nitish Kumar will be with the Left, Paswan said, "Nitish is with BJP. If any party wants to talk to Nitish, he will have to first leave BJP and Nitish will not leave BJP."
The LJP chief also accused Kumar, the then Railway Minister of shielding the Narendra Modi-led BJP government in Gujarat during the Godhra communal riots in the state.
"When he was railway minister, he tried to save the Narendra Modi government during the communal riots there," Paswan said.
Meanwhile, senior RJD leader and Rural Development Minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh also said no political meaning should be given to party chief Lalu Prasad not attending the cabinet meeting.
"Elections have just ended for three seats (in Bihar). They (Prasad and Paswan) are star campaigners of their parties. During elections, ministers are required to attend only those meetings in which issues related to their ministries are discussed.
"When there are no concerned issues, a number of leaders fail to attend cabinet meetings during elections," Singh said in Kolkata. (With PTI inputs)
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