Mistake not going with Congress: Lalu

16 May 2009,


NEW DELHI: RJD supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav on Friday admitted it was a mistake not going with the Congress party.


"It’s the mandate for the people,” Lalu said, adding that he has no grudges against Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar.

"It was the biggest mistake. And there is no doubt that breaking away from Congress has resulted in our heavy defeat," Lalu Prasad told reporters in Patna on his party’s loss in Bihar.

The RJD supremo has lost from Pataliputra parliamentary constituency against his nearest JD(U) rival Ranjan Prasad Yadav, while he won a cliffhanger at Saran against BJP rival Rajiv Pratap Rudy.

"People have rejected our alliance with Ram Vilas Paswan (of Lok Janshakti Party). We were not expecting this result. We will now assess why we lost in Bihar and what went wrong. The Congress party has won the mandate and we congratulate them."

"We are also happy that the (Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance) NDA could not win the elections," he said.

The RJD chief has not ruled out joining the Congress.

With the NDA registering major electoral gains in Bihar, Nitish Kumar said it was a positive vote for his government. ''The lantern (RJD's election symbol) has broken and the oil that was spilt set on fire the bungalow (LJP's symbol) as the arrow (symbol of JD-U) was right on target,'' he told reporters.

Stating that the Lok Sabha results should be seen as being in continuity of the mandate that the NDA got in the last assembly polls, Kumar said ''The people of Bihar have the rejected negative politics pursued by RJD president Lalu Prasad and LJP chief Ramvilas Paswan and have given a positive vote to my government which has been successful in bringing about peace, communal harmony and development.''

According to latest trends, the JD(U) was leading in 32 of 40 seats.

Paswan happy that secular parties have emerged victorious
Taking his defeat in polls in stride, Lok Janashakti Party chief Ram Vilas Paswan today said he is happy that secular parties have emerged victorious ending the prospects of communal forces to come into power.

"It is pleasant that secular parties under the banner of UPA have won all across the country and the prospects of NDA which has been trying to come into power have ended," Paswan told reporters here.

Reacting to his defeat in Hajipur to JD(U)'s Ram Sunder Das, the Union minister said that winning and losing are parts of the game and he would continue to serve the people of Hajipur.

"As far as Bihar is concerned, you have your wins and misses. I have served people. Nobody can say that Paswan has not worked for Hajipur. I had done for the development of the constituency whatever I could have done. Despite all these works you lose, it is just the wish of the people. I will continue to serve them," he said.