Lalu rules out pact with Paswan

Rashtriya Janata Dal president Lalu Prasad Yadav [ Images ] on Wednesday ruled out firming up an electoral tie-up with his arch rival and Lok Janshakti Party counterpart Ram Vilas Paswan for the upcoming assembly elections in Bihar.

Lalu said the LJP was now defunct.

"LJP is now a spent force after its legislators deserted Paswan. It has been reduced to a party without rank and file," Prasad said, while talking to reporters on his arrival from New Delhi [ Images ].

"There is no possibility of an electoral agreement between the LJP and RJD," he said.

• Read more on the Bihar crisis

On the efforts for a complete alliance among the United Progressive Alliance [ Images ] partners in Bihar, Lalu said there was no UPA in Bihar.

He, however, said he was ready to spare more seats for the Congress, Communist Party of India and CPI-Marxist this time.

On Paswan's allegation that RJD had not agreed to his suggestion for a Muslim CM in Bihar, the RJD leader said Paswan's proposal came at the eleventh hour when the state assembly was being dissolved.