Hajipur: Foes-turned-allies RJD chief Lalu Prasad and former Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar shared the dais at an election rally in the state on Monday. While hugging Nitish at the rally, Lalu said, "Nitish and I have the same political background. The time has come for the both of us to serve the nation together. People said Nitish Kumar went for help to his big brother Lalu. Who else will he come to?"
He also appealed to the Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh and Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati to enter into a grand alliance against the Bharatiya Janata Party.
"Today our joint rally puts a full stop on all speculations as to whether Nitish and Lalu would ally or not," said Nitish.
The two leaders shared the dais in Hajipur at a rally for JDU candidate Rajendra Rai. The duo will then be sharing a chopper to Mohiuddinagar where they will campaign for RJD candidate Ajay Kumar. They are hoping to fight off the BJP-led NDA, which won 31 of the state's 40 Lok Sabha seats.
Both of them will hold public meetings at Narkatiyaganj, Chapra and Mohania as part of campaign for the by-elections in 10 seats scheduled for August 21.
RJD state chief Ram Chandra Purvey said Prasad and Kumar would again campaign together on August 17 at Narkatiyaganj, Chapra and Mohania to seek votes for Congress candidate Mohammad Fakhruddin, RJD's Randhir Singh and JDU's Chandra Shekhar Paswan respectively.
The joint campaign schedule was decided after talks between the alliance leaders, he said, adding Congress leaders would also be present at some meetings.
Nitish Kumar had parted ways with Lalu Prasad and his RJD in 1994 to form Samata Party with George Fernandes. It merged with Sharad Yadav-led Janata Dal (United) in 2003, became a constituent of the NDA and Kumar emerged as the main rival of Prasad.
Kumar led the party to a decisive victory in 2005 Assembly elections, wresting power from the RJD. He repeated the feat on a grander scale in the 2010 elections.
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