New Delhi/Patna RJD president Lalu Prasad on Monday made his “fight” against the Congress official by fielding candidates from all three sitting Congress seats — Sasaram, Aurangabad and Madhubani.

The party announced candidates for 25 seats, postponing the decision on Madhepura, Patna Saheb and Maharajganj. Lalu will contest from Saran and Pataliputra. The RJD could not ignore incarcerated leader Mohammed Shahabuddin and decided to field the controversial leader’s wife Hina Sahab from Siwan.

Lalu said: “As the Congress intends to strengthen itself in Bihar, let it go alone in the polls.” Referring to the absence of an alliance with the Congress, he added, “we have to take bitter pills at times for better health.” The RJD has fielded A B Siddiqui from Madhubani, Shakil Ahmed Khan from Aurangabad and Lallan Paswan from Sasaram against Congress sitting MPs Shakil Ahmed, Nikhil Kumar and Meira Kumar, respectively.

Lalu’s anger stems not from the Congress’ decision to go it alone in Bihar but the candidates pitted against RJD-LJP nominees.

A look at the Congress’s first list of 22 candidates shows that the contestants would prove potential spoilers — popularly known as ‘vote katwas’ — for the RJD-LJP combine. Though the Congress candidates would cut both ways, denting the RJD-LJP and the NDA vote banks, it’s the presence of five Yadav candidates — mostly RJD rebels — in the list that is giving sleepless nights to many RJD leaders.

Apart from Yadavs, the Congress has also fielded Dalit leaders on sitting seats of the RJD-LJP and they could make the going tough for the duo in a triangular contest. The Congress appears to be trying to revive its traditional upper caste and Dalit vote bank with its list.

The RJD would have benefited had the Congress strategically fielded upper caste candidates and split the NDA support base. Though the Congress list has eight upper caste candidates, the way they have been fielded would harm the NDA but would also not spare the RJD-LJP. Despite the all out war, last-ditch efforts are on to buy peace.

Meanwhile, the RJD selection of candidates was on predictable lines with most of the seats going to sitting MPs. The new faces are Shyam Rajak from Jamui, Jagdanand Singh from Buxar, JD(U) rebel Rambadan Rai from Munger and Anil Kumar from Gopalganj. Patna MP Ramkripal Yadav and Barh MP Vijay Krishna did not make it to the list though. An RJD source said: “The party has not decided on candidates for Madhepura, Patna Saheb and Maharajganj in its bid to accommodate rebels and possibly Pappu Yadav, with the hope of the court staying his conviction.”