Manmohan Singh as PM cannot be taken for granted: Lalu

Patna, Apr 21 (PTI) Giving a new twist to the prime
ministerial race, RJD (Rashtriya Janata Dal)chief Lalu Prasad
Tuesday said that Manmohan Singh as Prime Minister could not
be taken for granted and UPA (United Progressive Alliance)
constituents will sit together after the elections to choose
their nominee for the top post.

The Railway Minister, who all along has maintained that
Manmohan Singh was the UPA candidate, Tuesday sang a different
tune against the backdrop of his party RJD and the Congress
going their own ways to fight the elections in Bihar.

"UPA is a confederation of secular parties and does not
belong only to the Congress. We will sit together (after
the elections are over) to chalk out a common minimum
programme and in consultation with all our partners select a
leader who will be the prime minister," Prasad told reporters
here.

"The UPA will form its government and there is no no
doubt about it. But, indeed, the people in the state Congress
leadership misled Sonia Gandhi about their strength as a
result of which the party fielded candidates in so many
places against us.

"These people will not be able to show their faces to the
Congress president after the elections," he said.

Asked about the strained relations between the RJD-LJP
(Lok Janshakti Party) alliance in the eastern Indian state of
Bihar and the Congress, Prasad said, "These things are natural
during elections. Do you expect us to worship each other.

"There is a famine of candidates in the Congress, which
is busy rebuilding and reviving its organisation. But despite
the presence of Congress candidates in the fray in large
numbers against nominees of secular parties the NDA (National
Democratic Alliance) will be wiped out," he said.

Referring to state Congress President Anil Kumar Sharma's
demand for an inquiry into his alleged role in shielding
perpetrators of Bhagalpur communal riots, Lalu shot back,
"Those in the Congress levelling such unfounded allegations
will land themselves in trouble. Was the Congress in power in
the state in 1989 or I? Everybody knows it was the Congress.

"It was my government that booked the perpetrators and
got them convicted," he said.

The RJD president accused Chief Minister Nitish Kumar
of setting up a judicial commission to probe the Bhagalpur
riots only to ensure that NDA's prime ministerial candidate L
K Advani's name as one of those who fanned communal tension at
Bhagalpur was removed.

Asked why he had joined forces with Mulayam Singh Yadav's
Samajwadi Party which had formed an alliance with Kalyan
Singh, who was Chief Minister of the northern Indian state of
Uttar Pradesh when the Babri mosque was demolished, Prasad
said," Kalyan Singh is not part of RJD-LJP-SP (Samajwadi
Party) Fourth Front."

About his relationship with the left, the RJD leader said
the CPI(M) (Communist Party of India- Marxist) backed the UPA
government in time of distress, but there was no understanding
between the Fourth Front and the left parties at the moment.

On the Bihar Chief Minister's allegation that the RJD and
Congress were deliberately confusing the voters, he shot back
saying, "Nitish is himself confused....He is a fused bulb."
PTI