JD-U chief rules out alliance with Congress

Janata Dal-United president Sharad Yadav dismissed speculation about his party firming up alliance with the Congress, saying there was no such prospect both pre and post 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

"There is no chance of an alliance between the JD-U and the Congress before the 2014 general elections or even after that," he told PTI.

"I cannot visualise such a possibility now or after next general elections," Yadav, who arrived here on a two-day visit to his parliamentary constituency Madhepura, said.

The remark assumes significance as the Congress has been wooing Chief Minister Nitish Kumar by promising to revisit the criteria for granting special status to states to accommodate the aspirations of Bihar.

On his party's view on Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi emerging as a front runner for the BJP's prime ministerial candidate, Yadav said, "The NDA will decide its prime ministerial candidate following a discussion and consultation among the allies in due course of time ahead of the next general elections."

When prodded further on Modi's elevation in the BJP parliamentary board, the JD-U president said it was an internal affair of the senior NDA constituent.

Yadav hit out at the Congress-led UPA government for the country's current economic state.

"It is due to the UPA-II's mismanagement that no big investment had come to India in industrial sector or even in the multi-brand retail which the ruling coalition sought to harp on as a booster to economic growth," he said.