After days of squabbling that left them pitted against one another in five assembly constituencies of poll-bound Bihar, the Congress and the RJD on Wednesday tried to mend fences and put up a cohesive fight against the formidable ruling NDA.

Senior Congress leader Ashok Gehlot, apparently under instructions from the party's top leadership, flew down to hold talks with RJD president Lalu Prasad and his son and heir apparent Tejashwi Yadav.

Accompanied by AICC Bihar in-charge Krishna Allavaru, Gehlot met Prasad at his 10, Circular Road residence, and later accompanied Yadav to 1, Polo Road, a kilometre away, for rounds of talks which leaders of both parties described as "positive and fruitful".

"I had a good discussion with Lalu ji. An impression has been created as if INDIA bloc was fraying at the seams in Bihar. It is far from the truth. If there is a friendly fight in five or ten seats out of 243, it is not something very big. We are going to take on the NDA as a team. Tomorrow, there will be a press conference where all doubts will be put to rest," Gehlot asserted.

Notably, while there are five seats where candidates of both RJD and Congress are in the fray, in three others, the grand old party is pitted against a smaller alliance partner, the CPI.

Gehlot also claimed that the NDA, all five constituents of which announced a seat-sharing formula and declared candidates for respective seats without much fuss, "was even more crisis-ridden than the INDIA bloc but it is not being talked about because the media is biased in favour of the BJP-led coalition".

The veteran Congress leader, however, evaded queries on whether the Congress has finally given up its reluctance to back 35-year-old Yadav as the multi-party coalition's chief ministerial candidate.

"Do not expect such an announcement from me. Tejashwi Yadav and Rahul Gandhi have great mutual understanding. Their chemistry was for all to see during the Voter Adhikar Yatra," said the former Rajasthan chief minister.

Yadav, on his part, did not seem to be worried as he shared pictures of himself with the Congress leaders with whom he claimed to have "meaningful discussions", barely a couple of hours after he created a fresh buzz with promise of "government employee" status to contractual workers in various departments and a hike, to Rs 30,000 per month, in the remuneration paid to nearly two lakh "community mobilisers" involved in Jeevika self-help groups.

The NDA was quick to realise that their principal challenger was out to woo the state's female voters, whom Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, the JD(U) supremo, has assiduously cultivated as a 'vote bank' over the years.

Leaders like Deputy CM Samrat Choudhary, who belongs to the BJP, and JD(U) national spokesperson Rajiv Ranjan Prasad, came out with statements rubbishing promises made by Yadav, and claiming that the people would not trust the leader of the opposition, whose parents, both former CMs, had allegedly remained indifferent to governance during his own tenure.

The RJD, which had won the largest number of seats in the last assembly polls, also suffered a setback as nomination of its candidate Shweta Suman, from the reserved seat of Mohania, got rejected by the Election Commission.

The party had won the seat in 2020 and the then winner Sangita Kumari is in the fray as the BJP candidate. While Suman has declared that she will contest the EC's decision before the court, the RJD leadership realised that it was short on time and announced its support to Independent candidate Ravishankar Paswan, whose father Chhedi Paswan is a two-time former BJP MP from Sasaram.

Meanwhile, Union minister Chirag Paswan, whose Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) is contesting 29 as an NDA partner, hit the campaign trail with three back-to-back rallies in as many constituencies, including Mahua, where his candidate Sanjay Singh is locked in a triangular contest with sitting RJD MLA Mukesh Raushan and Lalu Prasad's rebel elder son Tej Pratap Yadav.

Paswan, who represents Hajipur Lok Sabha seat, under which Mahua falls, alleged that the RJD's 'MY' (Muslim-Yadav) support base was a byword for "casteism and communalism".

Nitish Kumar, who at the age of 75 is seeking a fifth consecutive term in office, also canvassed in favour of candidates of his JD(U) as well as BJP and LJP(R) at rallies in Siwan and Gopalganj districts.

Meanwhile, Jan Suraaj Party founder Prashant Kishor, who had of late been busy finalising candidates for his one-year-old party, also resumed poll campaign from Saran district.

His party's state president Manoj Bharti met the Chief Electoral Officer of Bihar with a memorandum alleging that candidates of the party were being "allured or intimidated" by the BJP.

The development came a day after Kishor had alleged direct involvement of Union Home Minister Amit Shah and the BJP's in-charge for Bihar polls, Dharmendra Pradhan, in poaching of his candidates, two of whom were prevented from filing nomination papers while another was coerced to withdraw the same.

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