RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav announced today that his party and Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar's JD-U would contest the next Bihar assembly polls together to defeat the BJP and denied reports of differences between the two parties.

"There is no confusion. A section of the media with vested interests have been trying to jeopardise the merger. We are committed towards an alliance between the RJD and the JD-U to defeat the BJP in the next state assembly polls," Lalu said today.


Lalu made it clear that the most important item on the agenda was to prevent the BJP from making inroads in Bihar by strengthening the secular forces ahead of the Bihar's polls.


Lalu also announced that he was not in the race for the chief minister's post after the polls."I am not a chief ministerial candidate nor is anyone from my family. If I cannot contest polls, how can I be a candidate?"

-- MI Khan, Patna/Rediff.com