Sunday, January 9 2005 16:16 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: A day after RJD (Rashtriya Janata Dal) threatened to go it alone in Bihar, Congress president Sonia Gandhi today (Jan 9, 2005) directed senior party leader Arjun Singh to hold talks with RJD on seat-sharing.

"Sonia Gandhi has directed Arjun Singh to have talks with us (on Bihar)," RJD chief and Railway Minister Laloo Prasad told reporters at his residence in New Delhi.

Sonia Gandhi's directive came a day after an angry Laloo threatened to go it alone in Bihar if Congress did not give his party adequate number of seats in Jharkhand.

Laloo said after the talks between him and Arjun Singh, "the Congress president will talk to us" for final seat-adjustment.

Laloo said he was angry over the fact that even while Bihar talks were on, seats were announced by Congress in Jharkhand "without any consultation with us (RJD)."

"Allocation of seats should be on the basis of winnability factor and not through force," he said.

Laloo said when he protested to Gandhi against the manner in which seats had been announced, she (Gandhi) instructed Arjun Singh to hold talks with RJD.

The RJD supremo favoured that his party, Congress, JMM (Jharkand Mukti Morcha) and the Left parties should be asked to sit together to hammer out an electoral understanding to prevent a split in secular vote.

"We have to run the Government at the Centre and form our Government in Bihar," he said adding "this should be the guiding spirit behind the seat-sharing talks."

Ridiculing Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) leader Ram Vilas Paswan's statement that his party (LJP) was ready to support a Congress Chief Minister in case Congress tied up with LJP, Laloo said, "Paswan's stand keeps fluctuating."

Asked to comment on the hurdles in seat-sharing, senior RJD leader and Union Minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh said, "We will try till the end to sort out the matter, but if the differences persist we may be constrained to take some tough decision."

He said the manner in which the seats were announced in Jharkhand, even as talks were on in Bihar, it smacks of "breach of trust".

"In Jharkhand we have nine MLAs and two MPs and we should have been consulted," Singh said adding that the announcement should have been made after proper consultations with the RJD. He said it would have been better if all UPA (United Progressive Alliance) constituents fought together.

Asked how long it would take to finalise the talks, Singh said once a policy decision was taken, then seat-to-seat talks could be held.