Antony panel will decide on Congress-JD-U alliance: Digvijaya

Amid indications of growing bonhomie between Congress and the Janata Dal-United, which has broken its alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance, All India Congress Comittee general secretary Digvijaya Singh Tuesday said the decision on any tie-up between the two parties would be taken by the A K Antony committee.

"Any decision on a tie-up between the Congress and JD-U would be taken by the Antony committee," Digvijaya said in response to a query on likely realignments as JD-U will be chartering its own political course post break-up, ahead of 2014 elections.

Congress had formed a committee headed by Defence Minister A K Antony to go into the issue of alliances as part of finding new allies ahead of the Lok Sabha polls.

"After the exit of JD-U from NDA, the alliance has been reduced to a bunch of parties like BJP, Shiv Sena and Akali Dal that believes only in religious discord," he said, adding that the UPA is not concerned about the disintegration of NDA.

He said that Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar should have taken the decision to sever ties with the NDA much earlier.

"Had Nitish left NDA before 2009, BJP's Lok Sabha tally in Bihar would have been lesser," Digvijaya added.

Speculations over emerging alignments ahead of 2014 elections got a boost with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh describing Nitish Kumar as a "secular" leader and the latter expressing his gratitude for the adulation.

Singh said the affairs of the country are managed by Congress which believes in taking each and every section of the society along. "However, there are parties that believe in religious fanaticism and destruction," he said.

On Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi's anointment as the head of the BJP's election campaign committee, Digvijaya said, "Modi has already caused the split in NDA and is trying to break BJP as well".