N-deal: no mid-term elections, say Lalu, Pawar

Lalu also spoke in the same vein, but at the same time he underlined that if polls do take place then he is ready to face it. Pawar too pointed out that being in politics one should always be ready for polls. Pawar was here to participate in a function for the induction of rebel JD(U) leader Upendra Kushwaha into NCP. Pawar declared that Kushwaha will be the face of the NCP in Bihar.

Lalu went all out against arch rival Nitish. Replying to Nitish’s challenge to him on Wednesday to fight it out in the electoral arena, Lalu dared the Chief Minister to dissolve the Assembly and go for mid-term polls to test his popularity. “I dare him to hold the state polls and then everything would be clear. People of the state will show how popular he is,” the RJD chief said.

Castigating the Nitish Government Lalu said that there was all round despair and the public is reeling under floods, crime and kidnappings. “People will teach him a lesson in the polls. He is full of arrogance,” Lalu said. Replying to Nitish’s allegation that he was laying foundation stones for railway projects without land acquisition, Lalu charged that the CM too had done the same during his tenure. “He had got the then President A P J Abdul Kalam to lay the foundation for the proposed Harnaut coach factory without land acquisition,” he said.

Despite ruling out the possibility of an early general election, Lalu himself is in poll mode and is going all across the state laying foundation stones for different railway projects. He is also utilising railway programmes to canvass for his upcoming “Chetawani Rally” on October 28 against the Nitish Government. Today, Lalu rolled out his “garib chetna rath” from Patna to Gaya to canvass for the rally.

Later in the day, Pawar, who was in Shillong for the party’s Central Working Committee meeting, told party workers that the Indo-US nuclear deal deal was inked to generate nuclear power for the country. “India always believed in maintaining good relationship with its neighbour and the nuke deal was not meant for arms race,” he said.

The NCP CWC meeting was held here to discuss the party’s poll strategy in the three Northeastern of Meghalaya, Nagaland and Tripura.