SP, RJD, LJP form alliance

Three parties that are not in competition with each other in any way, today decided to form an alliance that seemed to have as its main aim, browbeating the Congress.

Three United Progressive Alliance (UPA) constituents, the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), Lok Janashakti Party (LJP) and the Samajwadi Party (SP) today pledged not to contest against each other.

Although their so-called ‘alliance’ spans 134 seats in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand, the SP is confined to Uttar Pradesh and has little or no presence in Bihar. The RJD is confined to Bihar and has no organisation or clout in UP. The LJP is limited to Bihar and could have been some competition to the RJD, but it has already struck an alliance with it.

It is clear that as and when a government is formed at the Centre, this group will act as a common front to browbeat the grouping, whether led by the Congress or the Left parties.

SP General Secretary Amar Singh said a formal announcement of the alliance would be made at a function here on March 30. He also announced that Paswan had agreed to drop his plans to field former Prime Minister V P Singh’s son Ajay Singh from the Fatehpur seat in Uttar Pradesh.

LJP chief Ram Vilas Paswan said in Patna that he had talked to SP President Mulayam Singh Yadav and RJD leader Lalu Prasad, and the three parties would provide an “alternative” in the fight against “communal forces”.

In the past one week, the three parties have been drifting away from the Congress after it announced its plans to contest against the allies in a number of seats in the two states, in the wake of failure of seat-sharing talks.

It is not known if the three parties will have a common programme or vision statement. However, if they win a large number of seats, they could become a headache for the next government.