Patna,(BiharTimes): The state Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Ram Chandra Purvey said on Tuesday that his party would soon announce its decision on the Rajya Sabha by-polls.

Talking to the media he said that the party chief Lalu Prasad Yadav would soon issue directive to all the legislators on voting. 

Earlier on Monday the party had said that it would not issue any whip and asked the MLAs to vote as per their discretion. The party had left all the options open. 

However, Purve parried a question on why the party had changed its stand. He concluded the Press conference and left the venue.

It now appears that the RJD does not want its MLAs to vote any candidate whom the BJP is backing. This means that it may issue whip directing the legislators to vote for the official candidates of the Janata Dal (United). If it does so than the party would be caught in a fix as it has already decided to give unconditional support to the Jitan Ram Manjhi government when the latter did not ask for it.

If RJD supports the JD(U) candidates than it may in a way bail it out from the trouble as many of its legislators have turned rebel. RJD has 21 MLAs in the House whose present strength is 237.

Last month media was full with stories that the RJD would like Rabri Devi to be sent to the Rajya Sabha in return for the support it gave to the Manjhi government on the trust vote. Lalu hotly denied the report and no such thing happened. 

Still given the choice Lalu is most likely to tilt towards the JD(U) rather than the BJP. But he may seek his own pound of flesh. 

RJD has repeatedly made it clear that it has supported the Manjhi government and not the Nitish government. The party is playing its own mahadalit card and is monitoring the development in the ruling party quite closely.