Former Bihar chief minister and senior JD-U leader Nitish Kumar on Tuesday denied a merger of his party with the RJD ahead of the next state assembly polls. Nitish Kumar said, "Hum sirf milkar chunav ladenge. Vijay ki koi sambhavna nahin hain. (There is no possibility of a merger, we will only contest polls together as an alliance).

The former Bihar CM said that the RJD and JD-U will contest the next assembly polls as an alliance because 'all secular forces should be united to defeat the communal BJP'.

Rumours of a merger between the RJD and the JD-U cropped up Monday after Bihar Transport Minister Ramai Ram said that Lalu Prasads RJD and states ruling JD-U should merge as one party to defeat the BJP in the next assembly polls in 2015.

Ram had said that both the parties have a similar ideology of socialsm and
secularism."Leaders and workers of both parties share much in common as far as ideology goes," he said. Even Bihar chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi supported Ram's views.

In August, Lalu Prasad and Nitish Kumar jointly campaigned during the by-elections in Bihar. The JD-U, RJD and Congress won six of the 10 assembly seats. That was the first time the two leaders came together after a gap of 20 years. The JD-U ended a 17-year alliance with the BJP last year after Modi was declared the prime ministerial candidate.

-- MI Khan/Rediff.com