Patna,(BiharTimes): The Lok Janshakti Party on Tuesday took strong exception to the statement given by the national vice president of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, that the allocation of seats would be decided after assessing potential of the candidates proposed by allies.

Talking to the media the state vice president of the LJP, Maheshwar Singh, said that if this is the criteria the RJD should come with its list of ‘pahelwans’ (wrestlers, but here it suggests potential candidates) first.

Regretting that such an assertion has come from a senior leader of the RJD he said that it is not conducive for alliance. The normal practice is that number of seat is alloted to a party, whose Parliamentary Board decides the candidates.

State LJP president Pashupati Paras, who was also present on the occasion, said LJP had contested on 12 seats in 2009 elections so there is no question of coming down from this number.

Since Paras is the younger brother of party chief Ram Vilas Paswan political observers are of the view that the LJP is doing its level best to bargain its position.

True the LJP contested 12 seats then but it is also a fact that it teamed up only with RJD as Congress fought separately.

However, the LJP, which failed to win any seat, does not want to give any concession so far the number of seats are concerned.

Incidentally, Ram Vilas Paswan got elected to Rajya Sabha on the support of the RJD MLAs. Yet it is a fact that a strong section in the party now favours an alliance with the JD(U). Some second rung leader of the party have even started talking with some JD(U) leaders and Paras too went on to say that it is a secular party. However, he hastened to add that his party chief is still in favour of secular alliance of Congress, RJD and LJP.

Later RJD leader Samrat Chaudhary downplayed the whole controversy by stating that nothing has been finalized yet and talks are going on over seat-sharing and other issues. So there is no question of crack in the secular alliance.