The Hindu : National : `Congress, LJP creating confusion in Bihar'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jan 28, 2005

National

National

`Congress, LJP creating confusion in Bihar'

By K. Balchand

PATNA, JAN. 27. The Bharatiya Janata Party and the Janata Dal (United) today said that anything short of a majority to the National Democratic Alliance would mean the return of the Rabri Devi Government in Bihar.

At a joint press conference, the JD (U) senior leader, Nitish Kumar, and the BJP general secretary, Arun Jaitley, charged the Congress and the Lok Janshakti Party with creating confusion by seemingly taking on the mantle of the Opposition parties.

Their objective was only to increase their bargaining power in Bihar vis-a-vis the ruling Rashtriya Janata Dal in the Congress' bid to counter the pressure that the latter was applying at the Centre.

The two leaders said that in case of a hung assembly both these parties would help the RJD form the next government. They feared that such a situation would be bad for the State as the political instability would add to the current problems.

Mr. Kumar and Mr. Jaitley were confident that the people were cautious about the game plan of these parties and would not lose the opportunity to bring about a change in the governance of the State.

Both leaders said that the mandate would be in their favour and that there would be no problem in choosing the chief minister. A chief ministerial candidate had not been projected only as a matter of strategy.

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