Singh Still King for RJD-LJP Combine: Paswan

The Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) and the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) would only consider Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for the top post, if the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) was voted back into power, LJP chief Ram Vilas Paswan said on his Hajipur constituency of Bihar on Thursday.

“The only name in our mind for the prime ministerial candidate is Manmohan Singh. In fact, the RJD and LJP combine consider only his name for the PM’s post,” amid voting was raking place in his constituency on Thursday.

The LJP chief, who along with the RJD worked out a tri-partite seat sharing alliance that miffed the Congress into going it alone in Bihar, said an earlier decision to become part of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) was the biggest mistake of his life.

“The alliance with NDA was the biggest mistake of my life. We will not repeat the mistake again. It was a blunder the first time.”

With Lalu, Paswan and the Congress going all-out to woo minority voters in the state, Paswan said he wanted the Left to join the “secular parties”.

“We have not opposed the Left,” he said. “We want the Left to come with the secular parties,” he said.

Paswan’s clarification of his stand on the UPA prime ministerial candidate came after LJP-RJD toes with the Congress came under strain following Lalu Prasad’s assertion that the UPA candidate for the top post would be decided after the elections.

Soon after the RJD boss raised doubts, the Congress retaliated with Pranab Mukherjee saying that there were chances of the next UPA government being exclusive of Lalu Prasad.

A day later, Paswan added fuel to the controversy saying the LJP would rethink its relationship with the Congress if Lalu Prasad was not part of the UPA.

Tensions, between the allies, eased considerably after Lalu Prasad called up Mukherjee, who attributed the confusion to his “broken Hindi”.

(Based on Internet reports)