Patna,(BiharTimes): Under pressure from the party’s upper caste leaders like Suraj Bhan Singh and Rama Singh and son, Chirag, the Lok Janshakti Party president, Ram Vilas Paswan, may finally join hands with the Janata Dal (United), even if the latter did not rope in the Congress into this combination.

Though Ram Vilas and Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar have not met till now reports from New Delhi said that the final announcement may be made within a week.

Reports said that while Ram Vilas Paswan’s son Chirag fears that his father would be overshadowed by the RJD chief Lalu Prasad, LJP strongmen, Suraj Bhan Singh and Rama Singh have personal interest.

As Suraj Bhan once again wants to put up his wife Veena Singh from Nawada parliamentary constituency the RJD may not leave the seat and is thinking in term of alloting it to Raj Ballabh Yadav, who had rejoined the party.

Secondly, Rama Singh once again wants to throw his hat in Ara Lok Sabha seat, which he lost last time, but RJD seems to be inclined to give ticket to Raghvendra Singh.

Araria too was contested by LJP last time, but here also RJD may give ticket to Taslimuddin, who had once again returned to the party fold.

In the same way LJP candidate Bhagwan Lal Sehni was the runner up in Muzaffarpur seat, which was won by Captain Jai Narayan Nishad of Janata Dal (United). He has now almost joined the BJP. Incidentally, both belong to the same caste. RJD is now planning to field its state president, Ramchandra Purve, from the seat.

But Ram Vilas has a problem in aligning with JD(U) in his own constituency, Hajipur. Last time he lost to Janata Dal (United)’s Ram Sundar Das. The latter, though in 90s, is still in the party, therefore, it would be a difficult choice for Nitish. Whether he denies Das ticket or not is to be seen.

However, Ram Vilas appears to be in a fix. Firstly, he personally wants Congress to be a constituent of this combination. But there is now a remote possibility of any such alliance as Nitish himself has gone too far in his criticism of the party. Besides, Janata Dal (United)’s national president, Sharad Yadav, is dead against any tie up with the Congress. Thirdly Ram Vilas is so much indebted to the RJD chief that he is still finding it difficult to publicly criticize him. In 2010 it was RJD MLAs, who elected him to Rajya Sabha, though there was strong resentment within the party as many other leaders wanted to enter the Upper House of Parliament.

Only a few days back Ram Vilas met the former chief minister Rabri Devi at her home and praised her and Lalu Prasad.

What a section of LJP leaders fear is that by joining hands with Janata Dal (United) Ram Vilas may be overshadowed by Nitish Kumar. So the choice is not so easy. Besides, like Lalu Prasad, the LJP chief too is soft towards Congress for personal political reason.

As Janata Dal (United) is seriously short of candidates––as many of the sitting MPs are deserting it or planning to do so––it may not be against the idea of seeing men like Rama Singh and Suraj Bhan Singh as allies. After all the latter was once too close to Nitish.