Patna: In an obvious indication of ending his party's ties with Lalu Prasad's RJD (Rashtriya Janata Dal), Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) president Ramvilas Paswan today (June 30, 2004) asked his supporters to prepare to contest all the 243 seats in the upcoming Bihar Assembly elections due early next year.

''We have to build 243 strong pillars for the Assembly elections. You should ensure that we are in a position to win all these seats,'' Paswan said addressing party workers assembled to felicitate him on his induction in the Manmohan Singh cabinet.

Saying that he had entered into an electoral alliance with Lalu Prasad's party for the Lok Sabha polls only to ensure the defeat of the BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party)-led NDA (National Democratic Alliance), Paswan said, ''I thought that tending to the wound in the head was more important than tending to a wound in the heel.

The BJP posed a serious threat to the country's unity and integrity, so it was like a festering wound in the head. The RJD-led Bihar Government is a wound in the heel and we will deal with it suitably.''

Paswan charged that several ministers of the Rabri Devi Government had worked overtime to ensure the defeat of all the eight LJP candidates who had contested the LS polls.

On his relation with Lalu coming under strain over the railways portfolio, the LJP leader said, ''I did not press for the railways when I came to know that Lalu was insisting on it. The steel, chemicals and fertilizers portfolios I hold are the country's lifeline.''