At the invitation of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), Congress and JMM leaders will ... finalise their proposed alliance and formalise seat-sharing arrangements.

The move coming after the dissolution of the Lok Sabha aims to go one up on the others parties and to regain ground lost after the fodder scam.

According to a senior Congress leader, the party has expressed its desire to contest 22 seats but the RJD has agreed to accommodate it only on 20 seats. The JMM is likely to be offered 6 seats and the rest of 26 seats will be contested by RJD candidates.

.. Besides some minor changes, the leaders agree to this formulae ... In fact ... Laloo Prasad Yadav sees the Congress as the best ally of the RJD if it is to fight the BJP. He also ... does not want to antagonise Congress chief Sitaram Kesri at a time when Kesri's help is needed to bail him out from the fodder scam.

The RJD leadership is also wooing the minorities. It is in favour of renominating all its 16 sitting Lok Sabha members, and has decided to put up Dalits, SCs and OBC candidates on the rest of the 10 seats.

Most of the 26 seats the RJD will be contesting are in North Bihar, which leaves Central and South Bihar for the Congress and the JMM. The seats being offered to the Congress are either held by the Left parties or the BJP.

Laloo does not intend to clash with the Left parties, particularly the extremist groups active in South and Central Bihar directly.                 (Source: The Indian Express, 8 December 1997)