President of Lok Janshakti Party Ram Vilas Paswan in Patna on Tuesday. Picture by Deepak Kumar

Patna, March 11: In between hectic lobbying for the Bihar biennial polls, the Union minister in the UPA government and LJP chief, Ram Vilas Paswan, today indicated that his party would contest the Rajya Sabha polls in alliance with the NDA in Bihar.

“We will contest the polls the way we contested two years ago,” conceded party vice-president Ranjan Yadav.

Ranjan’s statement, made in the presence of Paswan, made it clear that the LJP would field Ranjan Yadav this year as they did in the biennial polls two years ago.

The JD(U) and BJP MLAs had then voted for him, though he ended up losing.

This time around, however, Ranjan Yadav stands a chance to enter the upper House with the NDA having enough surplus votes to clear his way.

Asked if his party would contest the upper house polls, Paswan said: “We are sure to enter. We will make a formal announcement tomorrow.”

While LJP spokesman Sanjay Singh was spotted confabulating with Nitish Kumar, Paswan gave no indication of talking to his UPA partners in the state regarding the poll issue.

It will be another big jolt to Lalu Prasad if Paswan ties up with the NDA. The move may signal the growing closeness between the NDA and the LJP in the run up to the Lok Sabha polls. And Ranjan’s victory — if it happens — would be a bitter one for Lalu Prasad, as Ranjan Yadav was once a “friend” to the RJD chief. Now he is Lalu Prasad’s biggest critic.

The JD(U), BJP and LJP had their election committees meeting today.

After the meeting, leaders of respective parties said that formal announcements of the candidates would be announced by the respective party high commands tomorrow from the New Delhi offices.

There are strong possibilities that the JD(U) has cleared the candidature of Ejaj Ali, president of the All India United Muslim Morcha and N.K. Singh, vice-chairman of the state planning board as its candidates.

Lalu Prasad is likely to retain Prem Gupta as his party’s nominee for the lone seat his party is sure to win, on the basis of its numerical strength in the Bihar Assembly.

The person who appears to have been left out in the race for is Naushad Ahmad, the chairman of the state minority commission who enjoys the rank of a cabinet minister.

Bihar chief minister plucked Naushad, then engaged in shoe business, from political obscurity and gave him a cabinet minister’s rank two years ago, surprising political pundits and Muslim leaders who had been with the party in the days of its “power draught”.

Naushad’s supporters also lend credit to him for accompanying Nitish in the poll campaign and for swaying Muslims in favour of JD(U) during Bikramganj and Nalanda by-polls.

Naushad could have been expecting a reward for all his contributions.

But, Nitish’s political compulsion to rope in the members of the backward community is all set to see another leader, Ejaj Ali, emerge.

Ali would be the second leader after Ali Anwar to enter Rajya Sabha within two years with the JD(U) ticket if he is formally fielded tomorrow.