Tuesday, April 12 2005 15:28 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Patna: Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) president Ramvilas Paswan today (Apr 12, 2005) hit back at Janata Dal United (JDU)) leader Nitish Kumar asking him to "merge his party with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) instead of talking about secularism" and ruled out the possibility of the LJP coming out of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA).

"Instead of talking about secularism the JDU should merge with the saffron party and the sooner it is done the better," Paswan said on his arrival from New Delhi.

Nitish Kumar had yesterday (Apr 11, 2005) said that that all conditions, including severing ties with BJP, put forth by LJP leader Ram Vilas Paswan for Government formation were acceptable if Paswan merged his party with the JDU.

"All his conditions are acceptable. This includes even those conditions, which have not been made public so far provided Paswan agrees to merge LJP with JDU", Nitish Kumar had said in New Delhi yesterday.

Continuing his diatribe against Kumar, Paswan questioned the standing of Nitish in JDU, which he claimed, was in the " grip of George Fernandes who will never break his ties with the BJP."

Accusing Nitish Kumar of riding two boats by talking of secularism on one hand and continuing relations with the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA), Paswan stuck to his old stand on maintaining equi-distance from RJD and BJP and claimed a Government would be in place in Bihar in the next six months.

He refused to divulge the details about the talks he had with Congress president Sonia Gandhi in New Delhi yesterday.

Castigating the JDU for trying to poach on LJP MLAs, Paswan said, "Nobody will succeed in such a sinister mission. People should know that I am the steel minister and all the LJP MLAs are made of steel who will never make any compromise on the party's stand".