Sunday, September 18 2005 18:28 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: A third front took formal shape in Bihar today (Sept 18, 2005) with the Communist Party of India (CPI) announcing an alliance with Ram Vilas Paswan's Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) asserting that the two parties were against the 'misrule' of Lalu Prasad's Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and wanted to defeat the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in the coming Assembly Polls in the state.

The announcement by CPI General Secretary A B Bardhan at a press conference here dashed the hopes of Congress and NCP to rope in Paswan into the RJD-led alliance in Bihar.

"We are opposed to the misrule of the RJD. That is the single most reason why we have formed a separate secular alliance", Bardhan said.

Bardhan said the two-day meeting of CPI's National Executive, specifically convened to discuss the Bihar elections, finalised the party's tactics on the basis of reports from party's state unit.

"There will be an alliance between our party and Paswan-led LJP. Talks with the CPI(ML) are going on. We are also talking to parties such as Forward Bloc and RSP and the Samajwadi Party", he said. The CPI veteran said the alliance proposed to contest all seats in the election "on this basis".

"Some disagreements have to be sorted out" on seat- sharing, he said adding, "By September 23, we will certainly complete all the seat-sharing. As far as we are concerned, we are sharing seats for all the four phases of the elections so that the picture is complete".

"Our political campaign will be against NDA which consists of JD(U) and BJP in Bihar and the aim is to defeat the NDA combine", Bardhan said adding it was for the Congress, RJD and CPI(M) to say how they proposed to proceed at the hustings.

Charging RJD with 'misrule', the CPI leader said though his party did not question the secularism of Congress and RJD "our experience is that it is not enough to be only secular".

He said though the RJD was in power for 15 years, it had failed to perform in every field ameliorating the lot of the poor, good governance and law and order.

Observing that people wanted a change from the 15-year regime of the RJD, Bardhan said disagreeing with the perception that a new alliance would divide the secular vote. He said the new alliance would contribute in defeat of NDA.

"This is the assessment of our people and we are fighting the elections with the prospect of winning", Bardhan said adding, "Our party is a force in Bihar. We will prove we are a force in Bihar".