Saturday, September 17 2005 16:51 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Patna: The Congress today (Sept 17, 2005) ruled out any possibility of a hidden agreement with Ramvilas Paswan's Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) in the Bihar assembly elections and said the latter would have to either fight the polls alongside the constituents of Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) or against them.

There cannot be any hidden agreement with Paswan. He has to be either with RJD-led UPA alliance or fight against us, All India Congress Committee (AICC) General Secretary in-charge of Bihar Digvijay Singh told reporters.

The Congress had entered into half-baked alliances with both RJD and Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) in the February assembly elections and the UPA partners had engaged in friendly contests in a number of constituencies.

Stating that Paswan was unnecessarily imposing the condition of a Muslim Chief Minister on the UPA constituents, Singh said the prospective alliance partners of the LJP, Communist Party of India (CPI) and CPI-ML too were not agreeable to accepting the dalit leader's condition of a Muslim CM.

When the CPI and CPI-ML are not prepared to accept Paswan's suggestion of a muslim CM for Bihar, why does he want us to accept that condition for unity among UPA constituents? he asked.

Singh, however, said if Paswan joined hands with other UPA constituents and if the alliance got a majority and LJP leader came up with the name of a suitable Muslim candidate for the top job, his demand might be considered.

"Who can claim to be a bigger champion of the Muslim cause than the Congress? we are the only party which made Muslim leaders Chief Ministers be it A R Antulay in Maharashtra or Abdul Ghafoor in Bihar," he said.