Senior Congress leader Pranab Mukherjee said that seat adjustment talks were still on with the RJD president and expressed hope that a decision would be taken shortly.

Mukherjee parried questions on the delay in the seat adjustments between the Congress and RJD and said Jharkhand was not the reason behind the delay.On his part, Laloo said, "We will fight as one. In each of the 54 seats, we will have a common candidate." He declined to give details of the seat sharing accord.

Yadav has had extensive discussions with Congress president Sonia Gandhi over the last few days. Party sources said that RJD had agreed to give 13 of the 54 Lok Sabha seats to Congress in Bihar, four to CPI and one each to CPI(M) and Marxist Coordination Committee (MCC) as part of electoralarrangements among them to prevent split of non-BJP votes. Congress had staked its claim for over 20 seats.

Now that the rival alliance-BJP and Janata Dal(U)-has resolved its differences over the issue, onus is now on Laloo to conclude the seemingly vexed negotiations with the Congress.

The Congress has reasons to ask for more than the meager 12 or 13 Laloo is willing to offer as it has not been long since the Congress bailed the Rabri government out four months ago.

From the electorate's point of view, both the parties will face a trial in the hands on the urban voters as the latter's relief at "President's rule" in the state was inconclusively terminated. Conversely, this feeling can benefit Laloo's outfit in rural areas. Laloo, therefore, stands to use the fact to bargain for more with the Congress leadership.

Laloo's problems don't end with conclusion on seat-sharing pacts. In the 1998 election BJP, Samata and the Janata Dal had bagged 48.49 per cent of votes (BJP 24.03 per cent, Samata 15.74 percent and JD 8.72 per cent) while the RJD, Congress and the Left had garnered 37.55 per cent (RJD 26.58 per cent, Congress 7.27 per cent, CPM 0.40 per cent and CPI 3.4 per cent).

Now that the Bihar Janata Dal has united with Samata, there can be a consolidation of votes that may leave Laloo's alliance in deficit."It is do or die situation for our leader (Laloo Yadav). Since the assembly election are also round the corner, there are many fence-sitters waiting to join JD(U) if party performs poorly in the general elections," said a local RJD leader.