Will fight Bihar polls together, says Hemant Soren after meeting Lalu

Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren on Saturday (September 12) said his Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) party and Lalu Prasad’s Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) will fight the upcoming Bihar assembly elections together.

Soren’s statement came after he met Prasad at RIMS Director’s bungalow, where the RJD leader is staying. He spent more than an hour with him, reports suggest. Coming out of the Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences, he said, “we will fight Bihar elections together.”

He further said the former Bihar chief minister’s health is better now.

RJD is a partner in the coalition government headed by Soren in Jharkhand. Besides JMM, the Congress is also part of the government in the state.

Asked on how many seats the JMM will field its candidates in Bihar where polls are due in October-November, Soren said, “Wait for some more time to know who will enter the
poll fray from where.”

It may be noted that JMM had recently demanded 12 seats in Bihar under Grand Alliance. But the RJD, which heads the opposition grouping there, had indicated that it would spare not more than 2-3 seats to the Jharkhand-based regional party.

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The Mahagathbandhan (grand alliance) in Bihar consists of RJD, Congress, RLSP of former union minister Upendra Kushwaha and VIP of Bollywood set designer Mukesh Sahni.

The RJD supremo who is convicted in four cases of multi crore rupees fodder scam in Bihar is lodged in jail in Ranchi. On health ground he was shifted to RIMS. Recently in the wake of his attendants testing positive, Prasad was moved to the Director’s bungalow from the private ward of the state-run hospital.

(With inputs from agencies)