Mulayam, NCP form 'Third Front' for Bihar polls

The Samajwadi Party (SP) on Thursday joined hands with the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and two other outfits and announced the formation of a 'Third Front' for the Bihar assembly elections.

Party general secretary Ram Gopal Yadav announced the alliance and said that other than the SP and NCP, former Lok Sabha speaker P.A. Sangma's National People's Party and Samajwadi Janata Dal (Secular) would also be the constituents of the front.

The SJD (Secular) was formed by Devendra Prasad Yadav, who parted ways with Hindustani Awam Morcha of former chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi.

Yadav said that the candidates of the new front for the first phase of Bihar polls would be announced on Friday.

Earlier, senior Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Raghunath Jha joined the Samajwadi Party and said that RJD leader and former chief minister Lalu Prasad had ditched him.

"It was I who made him the chief minister and now he has deserted me... the only real socialist leader after Ram Manohar Lohia is Mulayam Singh Yadav," Jha said.

He said the Third Front would be a force to reckon with in the coming Bihar elections.

Meanwhile, Ram Gopal Yadav trained his guns on Lalu Prasad and Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and said that he had seen through their nefarious design in time and severed his party's relations with the grand alliance.

"At the centre of the matter was our party symbol. Had they succeded in usurping our (election) symbol, the Samajwadi Party would have been finished," he added.