Laloo's RJD had another shock in store: a senior minister in the Rabri Devi Government, Deonath Prasad, put in his papers and joined JD(U).

The CPI has decided to contest nine of the 54 Lok Sabha seats as against three earlier allotted to it by the RJD.

CPI General Secretary AB Bardhan who flew in to Patna on a mission to persuade Laloo to concede some more seats, was literally prevented by the state unit of the party from approaching him. The state unit has been maintaining a die-hard anti-Laloo Prasad stance ever since the alliance showed signs of cracking up.

Bardhan said: ``We expected that seat adjustment would take place on the basis of a political settlement. I really feel sorry that Laloo Prasad has put a break on it by unilaterallyannouncing the list.''

Bardhan said that on August 18, he had a talk with Laloo in Delhi and requested him to reconsider his stand. Bardhan regretted that the two-month-old exercise to forge an alliance of the secular forces ended up. However, he said that the party would definitely accept the RJD help on the three seats, which has been offered.

State secretary of the party, Jalaluddin Ansari said, ``There has never been an alliance with the RJD. It was a tactical understanding of seat adjustment. However, Laloo refused to accept the political necessity by resorting to the unilateral declaration.''

Ansari accused Laloo of ``sabotaging'' the secular forces. He said: ``Laloo failed to understand the implication of seat adjustment. He not only ignored our genuine claim, instead he sabotaged the secular forces''.

Ansari announced that the CPI would contest from nine constituencies. He also announced the names of the candidates.

When contacted, Laloo Prasad made it clear that his decision was final andhe would not concede any more seat to any of the alliance partners. Laloo said: ``Those who are going against it, are working against the secular forces''.

Though the clout of the CPI has been on the decline in Bihar, the party has the potential to influence the results in at least 20 constituencies. The CPI still commands a support base of 8 per cent.

Reacting to Laloo's statement, Ansari said: ``Laloo Prasad is responsible for the present situation. In case the BJP derives any benefit, for that Laloo would be held entirely responsible''.

The other setback for Laloo was the resignation of Deonath Prasad. The JD(U) has managed to rope in three senior RJD leaders, Ram Swaroop Prasad, Hari Narayan Singh and now Deonath Prasad.

Laloo expelled all the three RJD leaders from the party and Rabri Devi announced the dismissal of Deonath Prasad from the Cabinet.

Nitish backtracks

PATNA: Former Railway Minister Nitish Kumar will file nomination from Barh. He had earlier said that he would not contestthis time. The announcement was made by senior JD (U) leader Ram Vilas Paswan. Paswan also announced his own candidature from Hajipur, and George Fernandes' from Nalanda.