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Laloo-Congress talks on forming Bihar government begin

Formal negotiations between the Rashtriya Janata Dal and the Congress for forming the next government in Bihar began soon after RJD president Laloo Prasad Yadav landed in New Delhi this afternoon.

The Congress is veering round to supporting an RJD government on certain conditions, party sources said.

Yadav, who has come to Delhi at the Congress Working Committee's request, is holding talking with senior Congress politicians Pranab Mukherjee, Manmohan Singh, Mohsina Kidwai and Madhavrao Scindia at Parliament House.

Sources said the Congress would press Yadav to support the creation of a separate Jharkhand state and formulate a time-bound action programme to give a fillip to development in Bihar. The Congress is also not averse to joining his government.

All these conditions are being placed before Yadav to placate the Bihar Pradesh Congress Committee and its newly elected legislators who are divided on the issue of supporting the RJD.

At the CWC meeting last night, Jitendra Prasada, Rajesh Pilot, Ambika Soni and R K Dhawan opposed any move to support the RJD to form the government, arguing that the Congress had contested the assembly election on an anti-Laloo Yadav plank. They also pointed out that there was a serious divergence of views in the manifestoes of the Congress and the RJD, and these differences should first be resolved.

Earlier, on his arrival in Delhi, Yadav met Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary Harkishen Singh Surjeet for 15 minutes and told him to press the CPI to support his efforts to form a government in Bihar.

Yadav is also scheduled to call on Bahujan Samaj Party chief Kanshi Ram before leaving for Patna tonight or tomorrow morning. The five-member BSP group in the Bihar assembly has already extended support to the RJD's efforts to form the next government.

EARLIER REPORT:
Laloo arrives in Delhi, Congress will drive a hard bargain

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