This Article is From Jan 09, 2014

Lalu Prasad meets Rahul Gandhi amid Congress-RJD alliance talks

Lalu Prasad meets Rahul Gandhi amid Congress-RJD alliance talks

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New Delhi: RJD chief Lalu Prasad today met Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi in New Delhi and the issue of a possible alliance between the two parties is understood to have figured in the talks.

Mr Prasad had met Congress chief Sonia Gandhi a few days ago and vowed not to repeat the 2009 mistake of allowing the breakdown of alliance between the RJD and the Congress.

Though details of the meeting between Mr Prasad and Mr Gandhi are not available, the two leaders met for a few minutes and were understood to have discussed the current political situation and a possible alliance between the two parties in Bihar.

Mr Prasad is likely to meet the Congress chief again later this month for working out details of a possible alliance.

He had earlier said he has full confidence that an alliance of Congress-RJD-LJP will happen this time and will halt the march of "communal forces" in Bihar, Jharkhand and elsewhere.

He had also praised the leadership of Rahul Gandhi as "million times better" than that of Narendra Modi and Arvind Kejriwal.

The RJD chief had also expressed regret over the break-up of the tie-up with Congress in 2009 due to his mistake of offering only three seats to Congress and said the error will not be repeated this time.

LJP and RJD had fought 2009 Lok Sabha elections separately without an alliance with the Congress and as a result while RJD could win only four seats in Bihar, the Congress won two and the LJP failed to open its account. This was in stark contrast to them having together won 29 seats in 2004 Lok Sabha polls.

Congress spokesperson Meem Afzal feigned ignorance about the meeting but hailed the RJD chief as an old ally.

"Lalu Prasad is an old ally...I do not know whether the meeting took place. He has always been standing with Congress and supporting us...," he said.

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