File Photo: Janata Dal (United) President Sharad Yadav (Press Trust of India)
Amid speculations over the fate of the alliance between the Janata Dal (United) or JD(U) and the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) ahead of the Bihar polls, JD (U) President Sharad Yadav today insisted that both parties will fight the Assembly elections in the state together in alliance with the Congress to challenge a resurgent BJP.
"The unity is bound to happen as it is the need of the hour. The nation needs it. All of us will contest elections together. Congress, JD(U), RJD, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and others will fight together," Mr Yadav told the Press Trust of India.
The remarks come a day after a meeting between RJD chief Lalu Prasad's pointsman Bhola Yadav and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who is meeting party legislators and Parliamentarians to get feedback from them about the situation arising out of the logjam over the tie-up.
Mr Prasad had said in Patna yesterday that the reality was different from what was being propagated through "vested interests" and that he is "committed to fighting communal forces".
There has been speculation in the media that the BJP could be egging on Mr Prasad not to form an alliance with Mr Kumar. There has also been speculation that both JD-U and RJD have prepared a plan B to contest the elections separately if the alliance did not materialise.
Scotching the speculation, the JD-U President said, "The unity (of Janata Parivar parties) has already been announced. Now the announcement will materialise. It will materialise as the country needs it."
"I am confident about the unity," he said.
He, however, refused to clarify whether he was referring only to the JD-U and the RJD contesting together or also to the grand alliance of six parties of the erstwhile Janata Parivar.
Asked to give a date by which the alliance between the RJD and the JD-U will be sealed, Mr Prasad said, "I cannot give a date but unity will happen."
Mr Yadav refused to divulge what transpired in his talks with the RJD chief, saying these things cannot be shared with the media.
"I am in touch with everyone. These things cannot be disclosed to media," the JD-U President said when asked what about the attitude of the RJD chief towards the issue of alliance between the two parties for the state elections.
Mr Yadav also refused to comment on the recent war of words between the leaders of the two parties over the issue of projection of Nitish Kumar as the chief ministerial candidate of the alliance.
"I do not give statements on statements. But the alliance will happen," he insisted.
RJD vice president Raghubansh Prasad Singh, whose assertions against declaring Mr Kumar as the chief ministerial candidate of the alliance were retorted strongly by state minister Shyam Rajak, who had yesterday said the leadership and other issues could be sorted out only when prominent leaders of the two parties talk to them.