Laloo plays hard to get for Cong

But things have changed rapidly. Laloo used the Sharad Pawar alibi to push the Congress leaders on the back foot, saying Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) would cut into Congress votes and this was a liability for the RJD. Laloo’s second reason for acting tough was that while the RJD vote gets transferred to the Congress, enabling it to win, theCongress hardly ever reciprocated by adding its tally to the RJD.

Despite this, the RJD is willing to go with the Congress, Laloo is understood to have told Scindia, Shinde and Patel. However, the key demand came soon after. As quid pro quo, for his help, Laloo demanded seats from the Congress in Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Delhi, Rajasthan and Haryana.

It is understood that Laloo referred to the RJD’s “active” units in these states and that they needed some help from the Congress in return for Laloo’s backing in Bihar. Laloo is believed to have asked for either Outer Delhi or East Delhi from the Capital’s seven constituencies saying there were a large number of Biharis living in these areas.

Likewise, the RJD has asked for around three to four seats each in UP, MP and Rajasthan and one or two in Haryana. A stumped Congress team sought more time as they would have to report to Sonia on the new development. Laloo is slated to meet Sonia in the next couple of days and the Congress would like to haveits reply ready by then.

Basically, the Congress is facing fresh troubles similar to the BJP’s hassles with the newly-reunited Janata Dal. The Congress is hoping to increase its tally from the 141 in the last Lok Sabha but this could be a distant dream if it has to go on ceding seats to old friends like Laloo who have new demands.

Any seat given away to the RJD from UP, MP, Delhi, Rajasthan and Haryana will eat into the probable Congress tally and this is tough to digest for the party. Clearly, Sonia is having to deal with the uncomfortable truth that Pawar has already reduced her bargaining power even before the elections are held (which is why Laloo used Pawar as an alibi).

Already, the Congress has run into trouble in Rajasthan with the Jat Mahasabha saying it will vote against the Congress and go with the NCP, BSP and Ajit Singh’s Lok Dal. Likewise, Delhi, MP, UP and Haryana too are not very sound areas given the almost daily share of developments in the country’s political firmament.

The CPI toois charting its own course, siding with the NCP in Maharashtra, Samajwadi Party in UP and Congress in Bihar. The CPM too is having second thoughts on its pro-Congress line and is likely to change it to an anti-BJP stance, implying it will go with the best candidate who can defeat the BJP, from whichever party.

The crucial thing though is for Sonia to sort out Bihar first. The Congress has no chance without the RJD there and now Laloo is asking for a quid pro quo. Evidently, Sonia can either have the cake or eat it.