21 Feb : Amid rumours of Rashtriya Lok Dal chief Ajit Singh cozying up to Congress for a poll tie-up, BJP president Rajnath Singh has said the saffron party was "confident" of forging an alliance with the RLD.
"We are confident and an alliance would be announced soon. There is no reason for it (RLD-BJP alliance) not to happen," Rajnath Singh told reporters at New Delhi on Saturday.
The alliance is crucial to Rajnath Singh personally since a lot would depend on the help rendered by the RLD for him to win the Gaziabad seat in western Uttar Pradesh.Posters and banners have already come up across Gaziabad with Rajnath praising RLD patron and former prime minister Charan Singh as the "messiah of farmers."
The BJP, which is in talks with the RLD since August last year, has not yet been able to finalise a seat-sharing formula amid rumours of its leader Ajit Singh cozying up to Congress to "explore possibilities" of his party in UPA.The saffron party has set a deadline of February-end to finalise all its seats for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.
BJP expresses concern about Tamil civilians in Lanka The BJP expressed concern over the plight of Tamils in the war-torn northern Sri Lanka and accused the UPA Government of being "insensitive" while dealing with the issue.
"The Congress-led ruling coalition at the Centre had been extremely insensitive over the Sri Lankan Tamils issue, senior party leader M Venkaiah Naidu told reporters at Vijayawada on Saturday.
"We have no sympathy with the LTTE but are concerned about the plight of civilian Tamils in the island nation," he said.
Describing the interim rail budget as "disappointing" Naidu said the Railway Ministry has shown a surplus of Rs 90,000 crore which only indicates that it had not spent enough money on new projects and passenger amenities.
He said the BJP’s Central Election Committee will meet on 26th February for finalising the list of candidates.
"BJP would it alone in Andhra Pradesh in the upcoming elections though Nava Telangana Party has approached us for an alliance, Naidu said.
"We will take a final decision on alliance with the Telangana party after March 8," the BJP leader said.
BJP’s vote-share and number of seats in Andhra Pradesh would certainly increase in the coming elections, he said.
Assembly elections in Andhra Pradesh are due along with Lok Sabha polls scheduled in April-May.
