Patna, Oct 19 (IANS) Bihar leader Pappu Yadav, who merged his Jan Adhikar Party with the Congress last year, came down hard on the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) over the seat-sharing deadlock in the Mahagathbandhan and held it responsible for the poll fiasco in the high-stakes poll battle for the state.

Pappu Yadav, the six-time Parliamentarian, speaking to IANS on Sunday, squarely blamed the RJD for the stand-off in the grand alliance and accused it of depriving the downtrodden and unprivileged communities of their rights, which are rightfully theirs.

The Purnea MP also dished out advice to RJD patriarch Lalu Prasad Yadav, saying, “Lalu ji, this is not right. You should follow the gathbandhan dharma. JMM must be accommodated in the alliance.”

Further, batting for Hemant Soren-led JMM, he said that ‘gathbandhan dharma’ must be respected in the alliance, and the party should have been allotted 3-4 seats. The JMM, having been snubbed in the alliance, is contemplating contesting alone in six constituencies in the upcoming polls.

With nominations for the first phase of the Assembly election over and October 20 being the last date for withdrawing nominations, the grand alliance is staring at a breaking point, as the consensus still evades the coalition, and the major parties are still at odds on multiple fronts.

Pappu Yadav, further lashing out at RJD, questioned the rationale behind fielding a candidate in the Lalganj constituency when a deserving candidate from the backward community was already given a ticket by the Congress party.

“There can’t be any compromise with the interest of the extremely backward and Dalit community,” Yadav said and added that there can’t be any Chief Minister without the support of the grand old party.

“Congress is following the dharma of coalition politics. We have given a ticket to a candidate from the backward community in Lalganj. Why have they fielded a bahubali (strongman) from the seat? How is this justified?” he asked.

Lalganj seat in Vaishali district hit the headlines after both Congress and RJD candidates filed their nominations from the seat. While Congress has fielded Aditya Kumar as its candidate, its alliance partner made Shivani Shukla, the daughter of strongman Munna Shukla, its nominee from the same seat.

–IANS

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