Bihar Cong split over RJD issue

Anwar, he alleged, had 8220;created confusion8221; and 8220;demoralised partymen8221; by saying that the Congress had left the Raghopur and Pupri seats for the RJD, which had in turn left Sekhpura for Congress for the crucial by-elections.Such 8220;controversial utterances8221; had weakened the prospects of the Congress nominees, he said. He urged the party leadership to remove Anwar from his post and stop him from campaigning in the by-polls to theseven Assembly seats in the state.

Besides Mishra, former Bihar ministers S M Isha, Mahavir Paswan, P N Sharma, party MLAs Radhakrishna Kishore and Rajnish Anand, party leaders Jyoti, Irshad Hussain and Anil Sharma were among the signatories to the letter. The RJD has fielded candidates from Raghopur, Govindgunj, Pupri, Tarapur, Belagunj and Bodhgaya.

The Congress has officially announced its decision to contest five seats and decided against fielding its candidates from Raghopur and Pupri. Mishra said the Congress did not field candidates for the two seats as it had polled a lesser votes percentage during the 1995 Assembly and 1998 LS polls. However, RJD president Laloo Prasad Yadav claimed his party8217;s alliance with the Congress was 8220;intact8221;.

But BPCC president Sarfaraz Ahmed charged Yadav with trying to force an alliance on the Congress for contesting the June 3 by-polls. Ahmed said the CWC had decided to contest the by-polls in different parts of the country, including Bihar, on its own.