Patna,(BiharTimes): Rejecting the demand of 145 seats made by the RJD vice president, Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, chief minister, Nitish Kumar, said on Friday that there are 243 seats available to contest in Bihar.

Nitish even clarified his government’s stand on the reservation in promotion to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. The Patna high court has recently ruled against it.The chief minister’s statement on the issue came after RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav on Thursday evening advised the state government to move Supreme Court against the Patna high court ruling. He also expressed surprise over the state government’s reported move to implement the high court order.

Explaining the position Nitish said that his government’s stand on the issue is known and Supreme Court would be approached. The CM appeared somewhat cut up over Lalu Prasad’s suggestions on dealing with the teachers’ strike and other demands. The RJD chief even counselled the CM to call these teachers and hold talks to end the strike.

Social justice and communal harmony are the basic fundamentals of his party, Lalu said.He further added that since his party was supporting the state government he hopes that it would take up these issues.

Earlier, Raghuvansh Prasad Singh said that as per the last year’s election result RJD should contest 145 seats in the coming Assembly election. As his party established lead over JD(U) in 145 seats and the latter only in 43 seats RJD should be given this number of seat. He said that in alliance with JD(U) the aspirations and demands of the party workers can not be ignored.

Observers are of the view that RJD is adopting the pressure politics after JD(U) lost its bargaining position after the last year’s election and Jitan Ram Manjhi experiment.The tone of Raghuvansh’s remarks that ‘pench’s is not going to be solved so easily confirms that something somewhere is seriously wrong in the seat-sharing arrangement between RJD and JD(U).

Raghuvansh even went to the extent of criticizing the state government on deteriorating law and order situation, poor condition of health sector, teachers strike and state government’s lack of preparedness to deal with the calamity like earthquake.Both Lalu and Raghuvansh’s statements came after the party chief held a meeting with its legislators on Thursday evening.