RJD chief Laloo Yadav, shocked by the decision of the Communist Party of India (CPI), on breaking its pre-poll alliance, on Tuesday heaved a sigh of relief with the Congress acceptance to contest only 14 seats in the state.

The RJD leader, even on Tuesday, preferred his party spokesman Shivanand Tewari to release the list of seven candidates for the first phase. In fact, Laloo, deliberately took this stand to avoid the interface with media.

The Congress, to the liking of the RJD leader, has also declared on Tuesday that there would be no "friendly contest". However, the decision of the Congress high command, has created a ruffle here in state Congress camp and many leaders are already planning to join the newly-formed Janata Dal (United). Political observers here are of the opinion that, "Laloowill not be benefited by the Congress as much as it would have with the alliance of the cadre-vote base of CPI."

State Congressmen, speaking to The Financial Express said that "though the agreement has been reached between the Congress and RJD, the bickering between the two parties is likely to continue".

The dispute over the Bhagalpur seat is the main bone of contention as Sadanand Singh, the Pradesh Congress Committee chief, was inclined to contest, which has been given to CPM by Laloo Yadav. However, Laloo managed to maintain his stand by not granting Congress more than 14 seats in the state. In the last elections, Congress managed only eight seats from RJD.

The Left along with the Congress, shares the same platform. " There is no question of giving any more seat to any party now," said Laloo Yadav. This time, Laloo had to buckle down the Congress pressure and offered more than eight seats as the Congress had bailed out the Rabri Devi government from the President's rule in Bihar four monthsback.

Sources in RJD maintain that they had given "enough seats to the Congress and that is all they deserve now at this moment". On the other hand, rubbing their hand with glee, the BJP-led combine felt a sigh of relief by the announcement of Congress that the alliance with the RJD, Congress and CPM would be maintained. The leaders of the BJP camp are also aware that in at least 14 seats, the chances of the BJP-JD (U) seemed brighter than last elections as the Janata Dal vote bank would be transferred to them.

"We will this time surely bag 10-15 per cent of Muslim votes as well due to Atal Behari Vajpayee's image, a certain dent in Laloo's vote bank. I visualise in winning not less than 25 seats out of the 29," said BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi to The Financial Express. Modi said "in this election, we are going to do even better as the 14 seats, particularly, north Bihar, will be bagged by the BJP-combine as we had lost them last time by meager margins. "Even Laloo will have to face the wrath of thevoters in Madhepura (Laloo has announced his candidature from Madhepura, from where, he won by little over 50,000 votes last elections), as he has used them for politics only and has undertaken absolutely no development work," said Modi confidently.

In south Bihar, the major issue there is the creation of a separate state Vananchal (or Jharkhand), to which BJP and the Congress are committed unlike Laloo's RJD, which had stalled the bill in the state Assembly.

General secretary of the state BJP unit, Saryu Rai, who is also in-charge of south Bihar, maintains that "the voters are annoyed with the Congress as it had bailed out Rabri Devi government. The BJP has 12 seats from the 14 seats here and we will do even better this time." He added that the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), a one-time formidable force in south Bihar, has lost complete grounds over their dilly-dally attitude on the creation of the separate state.