Rahul Gandhi refuses to sever ties with Lalu prasad

Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi has reportedly refused to pay heed to Bihar Congress MLAs' request to sever ties with Lalu Prasad Yadav and asserted that the alliance would continue.

Rahul had on Wednesday and Thursday met over 20 of the total 27 MLAs of Bihar to elicit their individual views on how the party should tread in future in the state after JD(U) dumped Grand Alliance in July and joined BJP to form the government. Bhagalpur MLA Ajit Sharma told PTI that he requested Gandhi that the party should work alone "at the moment" assessing its strength to forge an alliance with other secular forces to defeat BJP in general and state elections.

"Lalu Prasad has always undermined Congress by offering 10-15 seats in Assembly poll and even a smaller number in a Parliamentary election," he said. An NDTV report said that many Congress legislators see Lalu Yadav as a liabilty. Some are of opinion the Garnd Alliance broke because of Lalu Yadav's corruption cases. Recounting "bad past experience" with Lalu, Sharma said "even in the August 27 RJD rally in Patna, posters of Sonia Gandhi or Rahul Gandhi were hard to find".

Amit Kumar, Congress MLA from Riga in Sitamarhi, also spoke against siding with Lalu. When Gandhi asked him why Nitish Kumar dumped the Grand Alliance, Sharma said he told him "Congress should have put pressure on Lalu Prasad to ask his son Tejaswi Prasad Yadav to quit after graft charge. It could have prevented Nitish Kumar from leaving the coalition". The Bhagalpur MLA claimed that this was the majority view of Congress MLAs during interaction with Gandhi.