SP, RJD and LJP to formally announce tie-up

Samajwadi Party, Rashtriya Janata Dal and Lok Janshakti Party leaders will formally announce their pre-poll 'secular alliance' on April 3 in Lucknow, SP leader Amar Singh said in New Delhi on Sunday.

While the three parties have separately announced their coming together, a formal announcement will be made in the presence of SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, RJD supremo Lalu Prasad and LJP leader Ram Vilas Paswan.

"They will sit together in Lucknow on April 3 at 11 am to discuss and announce the secular alliance," Singh told reporters.

"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," Singh told reporters.

LJP chief Ram Vilas Paswan had 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 that while separate announcements have been made by RJD, LJP and SP, "it is time to sit together and plan a long-term strategy."

The three parties' announcement comes close on the heels of Congress announcing that it would contest most of the 40 seats in Bihar and a large number of the 80 seats in Uttar Pradesh.

In the last fortnight, the three parties have been drifting away from the Congress after it announced its plans to contest against the allies in a number of seats in the two states, in the wake of failure of seat-sharing talks.