Bihar's RJD keen to contest Assam polls

Guwahati, Feb 27 (IANS) Bihar's main opposition party Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejashwi Yadav on Saturday said that his party would contest the upcoming Assam Assembly polls in alliance with "like-minded" parties.Yadav, who is the leader of opposition in Bihar Assembly, arrived in Guwahati on Friday and on Friday and Saturday held meetings with the leaders of Congress and All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) headed by Maulana Badruddin Ajmal."We are talking with the like-minded parties to defeat the BJP in Assam and other elections bound states," the RJD leader said hinting that the party would field candidates in constituencies with Hindi-speaking voters in both Assam and West Bengal. He said that apart from the Congress and AIUDF, he is in touch with other smaller parties in Assam. There are around five per cent Hindi-speaking people from Bihar in Assam and West Bengal. "There are considerable numbers of Hindi-speaking people from Bihar in 11 Assembly constituencies in Assam. However, we would field candidates only where chances of victory are high," said Yadav, son of former Bihar Chief Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav.The RJD leader also told the media that he would travel to other election-bound states - West Bengal, Kerala and Puducherry - to campaign against the BJP. The elections to the 126-member Assam Assembly will be held in three phases on March 27, April 1 and April 6.
--IANS sc/kr