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Samata leader against forming Bihar govt

Special Correspondent in Patna

As Bihar inches towards a hung assembly, both the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance and the Rashtriya Janata Dal have decided to stake their claim to form the government.

While RJD chief Laloo Prasad Yadav has been saying that his party should be given the opportunity to form the government as it would emerge as the single largest party in the state, Bihar state BJP president Sushil Kumar Modi is confident that the NDA would form the next government.

Modi said the governor should not invite the RJD as it did not have any pre-poll alliance.

He said several independents and factions of national and regional parties would support the NDA as they were keen on throwing Laloo out.

Laloo has once again proved that his Chalisa was still a force to reckon with in the state.

He said he would meet Congress president Sonia Gandhi for a possible tie-up with the national party for forming the government.

While the BJP and the Janata Dal-United were still keeping their options open, Samata Party leader and Minister of State for Railways Digvijay Singh had made it clear that they would not like to form the government unless they get the majority.

Even the Communist Party of India and Communist Party of India-Marxist had categorically ruled out any post-election pact with either the NDA or the RJD.

However, the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha-Soren had stated that they would prefer to back the NDA.

The RJD has so far won 121 seats, the NDA 118, the Congress 24 and others 47 seats in the state.

Assembly Election 2000

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