LALU, MULAYAM , PASWAN FORM ‘SECULAR ALLIANCE’
The three parties (led by Lalu Yadav, Mulayam Singh and Ram Bilas Paswan) vowed to provide an ‘alternative’ in the fight against ‘communal forces’ in UP and Bihar. Since UP and Bihar provide the bulk of members in the Parliament, this alliance may determine who forms the next government.
New Delhi: Hitting back at Congress, two UPA (United Progressive Alliance) constituents and an ally, RJD (Rshtriya Janata Dal) , LJP (Lok Janshakti Party) and SP (Samajwadi Party), announced the formation of a “secular alliance” that will contest 120 seats in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar united. “We three are together. We will fight jointly in North India. We will not clash with each other in the two states having 120 Lok Sabha seats,” Samajwadi Party General Secretary Amar Singh declared at a press conference in New Delhi.
LJP Chief Ram Vilas Paswan said in Patna that he had talked to SP President Mulayam Singh Yadav and RJD leader Lalu Prasad and the three parties would provide an “alternative” in the fight against “communal forces”. Singh said a formal announcement of the alliance would be made at a function here on March 30. He also announced that Paswan has agreed to drop his plans to field former Prime Minister V P Singh’s son Ajay Singh from Fatehpur seat in Uttar Pradesh.
(News: Mar 26, 2009 at 1451 hrs IST, submitted by Feroz Mehdi)