New Delhi, June 7: The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and the Janata Dal-United (JD-U) will contest the coming Bihar assembly elections together, it was announced Sunday.
‘‘It has been decided that RJD and JD-U will contest the Bihar polls in an alliance,’’ Samajwadi Party general secretary Ram Gopal Yadav said after a meeting between Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav at the official residence of SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav here.
Mulayam Singh – who has been named chief of the new party that came into existence when six former constituents of the erstwhile Janata Dal reunite – and JD-U chief Sharad Yadav also participated in the meet.
On the contentious issue of chief ministerial candidate which had threatened to derail the alliance, he said: “There is no dispute. These things will be taken care of later.”
Six parties which emerged out of the erstwhile Janata Dal – including the JD-U, the RJD, the SP, the Indian National Lok Dal and the Janata Dal-Secular –in April announced a merger to revive the old party.
In an interesting turn of events Nitish Kumar met Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi before his scheduled meeting with the leaders of the Janata Parivar here before coming to an understanding over the proposed alliance and its leadership for the Bihar polls. AGENCIES