Delhi Confidential: RJD-Congress alliance intact

After days of hard bargaining and some amount of muscle flexing, the RJD and the Congress seem to have resolved the tussle over seat sharing in Bihar. RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav reached Delhi on Tuesday and had a meeting with Congress leaders, including K C Venugopal, Mukul Wasnik, AICC in-charge of Bihar Mohan Prakash and state Congress president Akhilesh Prasad Singh. Sources in the Congress said the RJD has finally agreed to give nine seats to the grand old party. While the Congress had been asking for 10 seats, the RJD was not willing to give it more than five to six. The two sides will meet again on Wednesday the identify the seats. Sources said there was agreement on five seats and the rest will be decided in the meeting. It is not clear whether the RJD will give the Congress the Purnea seat, which it had sought for Pappu Yadav, who joined the party last week.

Past Connect

Union Minister and BJP’s Udhampur candidate Jitendra Singh, who has been campaigning in his constituency for the past few days, stopped his convoy on the highway recently to seek the blessings of an old woman. He got down from the car, touched the woman’s feet and hugged her. This was a special moment for the woman and the minister who said he used to stay at her house in a village in Udhampur early on in his career when he lacked resources.