Daltonganj (Bihar): The Congress party has decided to have electoral alliances with like-minded regional parties to defeat the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in the next Lok Sabha elections and polls to five Assemblies.

All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary in-charge of Bihar and Jharkhand, R K Dhawan, addressing a congress rally said, Congress has vowed to remove the communal Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government at the Centre for which the party is prepared to have electoral alliances with like- minded secular and democratic regional parties.

The Congress will contest the next Lok Sabha elections and the Assembly polls in five states-- Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Delhi, Chattisgarh and Mizoram-- in electoral alliance with secular regional parties, he said.

The Congress leader's statement came close on the heels of party president Sonia Gandhi's assertion at a conclave of Chief Ministers of Congress-ruled states in Srinagar where she expressed willingness to forge pre-poll alliances with like-minded parties to contest the Parliamentary and Assembly elections.

Dhawan charged the BJP with indulging in politics of religious fanaticism aimed at fomenting communal tension to remain in power, and asked party workers to launch a concerted movement to bring down the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre.

The AICC general secretary said that the BJP-led government at the Centre, instead of fulfilling its commitment to provide a corruption-free government, is encouraging religious fanatics to cling to power. We will never allow the communal NDA to succeed in its evil design.

PTI