In a curious role reversal, the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), often accused of harbouring its share of Bihar’s history-sheeters, is pleading with alliance partner Congress not to field tainted candidates in the Lok Sabha election.
Several history-sheeters are making a beeline for joining the Congress or as partners in the alliance — prominent among them are Anand Mohan, Anant Singh, and Pappu Yadav, whose wife Ranjeet Ranjan is a Congress MP. Mr. Yadav, leader of the Jan Adhikar Party (JAP) and MP for Madhepura, met Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday. The JAP has demanded the Madhepura and Purnea seats.
RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav has publicly expressed his opposition to some of these characters entering the alliance through the Congress route.
“Speculation regarding certain people as potential candidates of the Bihar alliance is disturbing for us. But we are confident that the Congress leadership will be sensitive to our concerns,” said Manoj Jha, RJD member in the Rajya Sabha. “The RJD-Congress alliance is not an opportunistic alliance and both parties are clear about the challenge ahead for the country. We are together with a purpose and that glue is very strong,” Mr. Jha said.
Shaktisinh Gohil, AICC in-charge of Bihar, did not rule out an understanding with Pappu Yadav, but said he was not joining the Congress. “Pappu Yadav is not a member of the Congress, and he has his own party.” he said. Mr. Gohil said the Congress alliance with the RJD was moving smoothly.
Meanwhile, RJD chief Lalu Prasad is cold to the proposal to field former JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar from Begusarai as a CPI candidate.
