Congress to go alone in Bihar Assembly bypolls

New Delhi: After the victory of General Elections 2009, the Congress has decided to go alone in the Assembly by-elections to 18 seats in Bihar.

To woo the voters, the Congress is telling them that after trying out Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and National Democratic Alliance (NDA) they should give them a chance to “turnaround the state”.

“We are the natural choice in Bihar. We are highlighting the failure of the Nitish Kumar government in taking development to the poor and the downtrodden,” national spokesman of the party Shakeel Ahmed said.

He said the party is going alone in the state and is contesting all 18 seats and has no truck with the RJD-LJP alliance.

“Now, people have seen the functioning of both the RJD and the NDA government. They have to make a choice now. Congress is the only alternative in the state,” Ahmed added.

Experts see this decision of Congress as the “last nail in the coffin” of its alliance with the RJD.

Party sources ruled out possibility of alliance with the RJD-LJP front in any future elections in the state as they said the pain of being dumped in the Lok Sabha elections is still there.

In the Lok Sabha elections 2009, the RJD-LJP unilaterally announced its candidates forcing the Congress to accept three of the 40 seats in the state.

The Congress however then decided to go alone and while the LJP drew a blank, RJD won four and Congress two seats.

Sources said that the Congress has lined up several national leaders for campaigning in the 18 seats which go to polls in two phases - on September 10 and 15.

While Lalu Prasad-led RJD is contesting 13 seats, Ramvilas Paswan's LJP has fielded nominees on five seats in the state.