Ram Vilas Paswan may return to Parliament next year as a Rajya Sabha member if his alliance with Lalu Prasad lasts till then.
Sources in the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) said Lalu Prasad had offered to make Paswan their two parties’ common candidate in the Rajya Sabha elections, due in March-April.
Paswan had lost in the recent Lok Sabha polls, where his party drew a blank while the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) won just four seats from Bihar. Lalu Prasad’s tentative offer to Paswan is an attempt at consolidating the alliance before the Assembly polls, due in November 2010. “It’s the politics of give-and-take, although it’s a bit early for a final decision,” a senior RJD leader said.
Lalu Prasad is said to have aided the LJP earlier too, helping send Sabir Ali to the Rajya Sabha during the previous Upper House election although the LJP had just nine Assembly seats. One Rajya Sabha seat from Bihar is won roughly with the votes of 36 MLAs.
The Lalu Prasad-Paswan combine now has 61 MLAs and hopes to win a few more seats in the upcoming bypolls to 15 Assembly seats. The alliance expects to have two seats in the Rajya Sabha. But even if the combine can win just one Rajya Sabha seat, it will still go to Paswan.
LJP sources said Paswan may not vacate his MP’s residence in New Delhi and prefer to pay the market rent for a few more months.
“The Samajwadi Party has offered the Firozabad Lok Sabha seat in Uttar Pradesh (to be vacated by its state president Akhilesh Yadav) but Paswanji does not want to accept it since another defeat would put him in a difficult situation,” a party source said.
Paswan, Lalu Prasad and Samajwadi chief Mulayam Singh Yadav had joined hands before the Lok Sabha polls after failing to strike their individual deals with the Congress, which returned with an unexpectedly large number of seats and left them out in the cold.
The RJD still has a strong presence in Bihar and wants to show it is not finished without Congress support.
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