Congress

After Laloo Prasad Yadav's RJD and Ram Vilas Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) had decided to contest for 37 of Bihar’s 40 seats and leave only 3 seats for its 9 year old ally Congress; the latter retaliated by announcing that it will contest for 37 out of the 40 seats itself. The alliance thus came down between these two parties. This will weaken Congress further.

After this Laloo Prasad Yadav announced that RJD-LJP alliance will take back the offer of letting Congress contest from the three seats as well. He rubbed it further by suggesting that in UP, Bihar and West Bengal there was really no presence of Congress. What it means is that Congress (as well as its main opponent) may consider themselves as "National" parties, but they are dependent on the regional players to stay alive in politics.

The feud got worse as Congress has decided to field Laloo's brother-in-law Sadhu Yadav as its candidate in Betiah Lok Sabha seat as he did not get the RJD ticket.

Laloo, however, did not burn all the bridges. He eulogized Sonia Gandhi and Dr. Singh and suggested that they are part of UPA and if they win, they will try and put Dr. Singh as the PM again.

In a recent opinion poll, it seems that this time it will be a hung parliament... where Congress led UPA will get 215 to 235 seats while BJP led NDA alliance will get between 165 to 185 seats. The poll was conducted by CSDS for CNN-IBN. Interestingly, it is predicted that the gains for Congress would come from the Hindu Upper Castes (8%), dominant peasant castes (7%) and the lower OBCs and Adivasis (5%)!

The political parties are "fishing" for a fight as the elections approach! Narender Modi was asked about the "youth icon" Rahul Gandhi from Congress. To which he replied:

'We are not small fish floating around in the comfort of aquariums, but we weather huge storms to win. 'We are not flowers cultivated by gardeners of the rich. We have grown up in the forests on our own, which young people are they talking about?'

A Public Interest Litigation was filed against Mulayam Singh Yadav to know into the alleged dispropotionate wealth of Yadav and his kins. The Supreme Court ordered a preliminary probe by CBI into the wealth of Yadav on March 1, 2007.

However, now, CBI is being asked by the Central Government to withdraw the probe. In order to withdraw the plea, the CBI communicated:

"Representations were received from respondents (Yadav & Co) and legal advice was sought. In view of the legal advice and directions of the Union of India, the interlocutory application filed by the CBI may be allowed to be withdrawn."

Sri Lanka has invited the Indian Foreign Minister to visit the country to "clarify" the humanitarian position for himself. Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama said that his government was maintaining a close relationship with India and shared a similar stand on the issue of terrorism.