Saturday, April 2 2005 14:01 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Patna: An exercise of forging a third front comprising non-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and non-Rashtriya Janata Party (RJD) parties today (April 2, 2005) appeared to have gained momentum.

Janata Dal United (JDU) leader Nitish Kumar and Lok Janashakti Party (LJP) chief Ram Vilas Paswan, whose party with 29 MLAs holds the key to Government formation in Bihar are holding parleys with Samajwadi Party (SP) State president Dadan Singh alias Dadan Pahelwan.

The trio held a close-door breakfast meeting at Pahelwan's Circular Road residence for an hour and posed together for photographs.

Emerging from the meeting, Pahelwan told waiting reporters that a move was afoot to forge a third front comprising non-RJD and non-BJP parties to form a popular Government in Bihar.

Pahelwan said the SP with four MLAs would be part of a non-BJP and non-RJD Government but refused to divulge the details about the talks saying ''things are moving in the right direction and a popular Government will soon be in place.

Later talking to reporters, Kumar described their meeting at Pahelwan's residence as inconclusive and said fresh round of talks would resume in New Delhi after the three-day review meeting of the LJP which began in Patna today to discuss the ways to form a Government.