Lalu offers 11 seats to Cong, 1 to NCP

March 1, 2014
Patna, Mar 1: Putting pressure on Congress, RJD chief Lalu Prasad today offered 11 seats to Congress and asked the party to give its acceptance by tomorrow when his party's Parliamentary Board will meet here. lalu

RJD has also offered one out of the 40 seats in the state to another Congress ally NCP.

The development comes after an old ally LJP walked over to the BJP camp.

Prasad, who returned here from Delhi last night, said he had told Congress general secretary and in-charge of Bihar C P Joshi of the offer.

"I have asked him to communicate acceptance before RJD Parliamentary Board meeting in Patna tomorrow at 3 PM," Prasad told reporters.

Asked to comment why the alliance between RJD and Congress was stuck, he said the offer did not mean that "everything is over" between the two parties on the issue."I have also told Joshi that if his party stakes claim for any other seat than he should tell me and also convince me of the winning potential of his expected candidate," he said.

To questions on whether RJD could decide to go it alone, he said, "Why are you presuming things ? ... The party's Parliamentary board will take some decisions tomorrow."

Prasad said that for him and RJD the biggest challenge was to stop communal forces. "For this we want to take all secular parties, including Congress with us."

The RJD chief had said last night, "Now there will be lathbandhan (alliance of bamboo)", conveying that RJD would be taking on Congress in the poll fight.

He clarified today that he had not meant a fight with Congress, which he said, was a media interpretation.

Prasad, however, did not identify the 11 seats he has offered to Congress or the one to NCP of Sharad Pawar.

He also refused to comment on reports that RJD-Congress alliance was stuck due to conflicting claims between the two parties on Madhubani and a few other seats.

"In general the claim shall be staked on seats only on the basis of performance of the respective parties in the last general elections as per Election Commissions results."

While Congress appears to be adamant about getting the Madhubani seat for its general secretary Shakeel Ahmad, RJD is in no mood to relent and claims it for its legislature party leader Abdul Bari Siddiqui.

Congress and RJD had fought separately in the 2009 polls and Siddiqui had secured second position after BJP's Hukumdeo Narayan Yadav, while Ahmad was at third position in the seat.

Congress is reportedly asking for seats like Patliputra, Nawada and Bhagalpur which are RJD favourites. Prasad is expected to field his eldest daughter Misa Bharti from Patliputra constituency in Patna district against his friend-turned-enemy Ranjan Yadav.

Prasad said his erstwhile ally Ramvilas Paswan, who had now joined hands with BJP, had committed 'holika dahan' of his ideology much before Holi.

"It is beyond imagination to think how Paswan can go with BJP, which with Nitish Kumar had kept his caste out of the list of Mahadalits (poorer among poor in the weaker section)," he said.

Prasad also made a scathing attack on his bete noire Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who had commented that there was fire in RJD's house (13 MLAs quitting RJD and 9 of them returning latter) due to "short circuit".

"His (Kumar's) transformer itself has blasted as is seen in the expulsion of 5 MPs by JD(U)," Prasad said.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
News Network
February 1,2020

New Delhi, Feb 1: India on Friday banned the export of personal protection equipment such as masks and clothing amid a global coronavirus outbreak.

It did not give a reason for the ban but it reported its first case of the new coronavirus on Thursday, a woman in Kerala who was a student of Wuhan University in China.

The central Chinese city of Wuhan is the epicentre of the outbreak, and the virus has since spread to more than 9,800 people globally and killed 213 people in China.

Several Indian citizens living in Wuhan will arrive in India by plane on Saturday and be taken to a quarantine centre on the outskirts of the capital New Delhi.

India, the world’s second most heavily populated country after China, has taken measures to ensure that all people arriving from China report to health authorities.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
News Network
January 30,2020

Jan 30: BJP leader and West Bengal party head, Dilip Ghosh has yet again made a controversial statement. He said that one has to go to jail in order to gain respect or become a political leader.

"You will not be a leader if you don't go to jail, if Police don't take you, then you must go there yourself. If they don't give you any scope, you do something to go to jail, only then will people respect you. There is no place for soft people in politics," ANI quoted Ghosh as saying.

Earlier, Ghosh had triggered a controversy by saying that anti-CAA protestors in Assam and Uttar Pradesh were shot dead "like dogs", and similar punishment should be given to protestors in Bengal.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
Agencies
August 1,2020

Chandigarh, Aug 1: The death toll in the Punjab spurious liquor tragedy rose to 86 on Saturday even as Chief Minister Amarinder Singh suspended seven excise officials and six policemen, officials said.

The government also announced a compensation of Rs 2 lakh for each of the families of the deceased, they said.

Tarn Taran alone accounted for 63 deaths, followed by 12 in Amritsar and 11 in Gurdaspur’s Batala. Till Friday night, the state had reported 39 deaths in the tragedy unfolding since Wednesday night.

According to an official statement, the CM ordered the suspension of seven excise officials, along with six policemen.

Among the suspended officials are two deputy superintendents of police and four station house officers.

Strict action will be taken against any public servant or others found complicit in the case, said the chief minister, describing the police and excise department failure to check the manufacturing and sale of spurious liquor as shameful.

Nobody will be allowed to get away with feeding poison to our people, he added.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.