Cong calls RJD for fresh talks on seats

Ranchi: RJD here on Saturday indicated that it might attend a meeting called by Congress, a major constituent of the state’s mahagathbandhan, which it had left a week ago over seat distribution. RJD state chief Gautam Sagar Rana said, “Congress has called a meeting with us on Sunday. We hope the mahagathbandhan doesn’t field any candidate in Chatra.”
The mahagathbandhan constituents will meet at JMM working president Hemant Soren’s residence on Sunday, which Congress MLA Alamgir Alam invited RJD to attend.

Chatra and Palamu were the two seats that RJD had demanded while it was in the mahagathbandhan. The latter was ready to allot only Palamu. It was over this issue that RJD walked out of the grand alliance, which now comprises Congress, JMM and JVM-P.

On Wednesday, RJD named sand trader Subhash Yadav, known for his close ties with Lalu’s family, as its nominee for Chatra. Ghuran Ram will be the party’s candidate for Palamu.

While keeping its options to go back to the mahagathbandhan open, RJD on Saturday held a meeting of its working committee to plan its campaign. “We have set up a war room to run our election strategy and prepare responses to various issues taken up by newspapers, television channels and other media platform,” Rana said after the working committee meeting.

“Party general secretaries and other senior leaders, who are multi-lingual, will run the war room. It will work round-the-clock once our candidates file their nominations,” Rana added. The RJD leader said Lalu’s wife Rabri Devi, and children Tejashwi, Tej Pratap and Misa Bharti, will be the party’s star campaigners. Asked if his party would return to the mahagathbandhan, he added, “We are not going to give up Chatra and Palamu. It is up to other mahagathbandhan partners to take a call on this.”

Subhash Yadav said his party would soon begin a people connect programme in the two constituencies. He added, “We want to hear what kind of problems people are facing. We will not run our campaign from air-conditioned rooms. Nor will we indulge in any kind of jumlebaazi.”