Wednesday, September 7 2005 17:03 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: Congress today (Sept 7, 2005) gave a deadline to Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) chief Ram Vilas Paswan upto September 23 to decide whether it wanted to come with RJD-led UPA in the coming Bihar Assembly polls.

"It cannot be open ended, the obvious deadline is September 23 when the notification for the polls will be issued," AICC General Secretary Digvijay Singh told reporters after Paswan had an hour-long meeting with Sonia Gandhi.

According to Singh, Sonia told the LJP leader that "we cannot wait forever". He also said that during the meeting Paswan conceded that if a third front is floated it would obviously benefit the BJP-led NDA.