Patna, Oct. 31: The JDU and the RJD have initiated steps to put their house in order before the acid test of their grand alliance with the Congress in Jharkhand after its successful launch in Bihar.

The RJD chief, Lalu Prasad, would convene a meeting in New Delhi on November 6 apparently to rein in on some party leaders averse to the grand alliance before the Assembly elections start in Jharkhand next month.

The JDU national president, Sharad Yadav, started the reconciling work today itself considering that his party’s role might be reversed in the neighbouring state with the Congress playing the big brother’s role.

The JDU, RJD and the Congress formed the grand alliance in Bihar before the Assembly bypolls in August.

The coalition clinched six of the 10 seats going to the polls, stopping the BJP’s juggernaut after its spectacular performance in the Lok Sabha elections.

A source in the JDU said Sharad got into the business of addressing the strain in the relationship between former chief minister Nitish Kumar and his successor Jitan Ram Manjhi this morning. He held meetings with a few ministers separately on the issue, the source said.

Nitish has not shared a public stage with Manjhi for over a month. The chief minister was absent in the meetings of the MLAs and the party’s officer-bearers at his residence. He has also not been included in Nitish’s Yatra to revive the party from the second week of November.

“The series of developments has given an impression that there are two factions in the party — one headed by Nitish and the other by Manjhi. Sharad is trying to bring them on the same plane to change this perception,” said a former JDU MP.

In the afternoon, Sharad went to the house of Nitish for another round of parleys.

“We discussed the polls in Jharkhand,” he said, coming out of Nitish’s residence and feigned ignorance over any difference between Nitish and Manjhi.

Chief minister Manjhi also claimed that there were no differences between Nitish and him. “I shall always be with Nitish. He is our leader,” said the chief minister, whose statements embarrassed the JDU more than once.

Lalu, the newfound friend of the JDU, is still recuperating in Delhi after his cardiac surgery. Yet, he would address his partymen on the Jharkhand polls on November 6. Confirming the move, RJD MLC Bhola Yadav said senior party leaders, including former minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, Jagdanand Singh and Abdul Bari Siddiqui, were expected to be there.

A section of the RJD leaders, including Raghuvansh and Jagdanand, had openly expressed their resentment over the alliance with the JDU in Bihar.