The RJD chief said a Bihar-like grand alliance, like in 2015 polls, was required at the national level to check the BJP's political surge.

Patna, April 22,2017 (PTI): A day after Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar called on Congress president Sonia Gandhi, RJD supremo Lalu Prasad on Saturday said he too would soon meet the AICC chief for a stronger opposition unity against the BJP. "Definitely we will talk about the present political conditions and also the ways to forge a stronger unity between the secular and the socialist parties against the BJP," said Prasad. "It has been seen that wherever the secular and socialist parties have fought together, they have won elections against the BJP. But where they fought separately, they have lost," said the RJD president. Referring to the grand alliance of the RJD, the JD(U) and the Congress inflicting a massive defeat to the BJP-led NDA in 2015 assembly poll in Bihar, he said the parties lost to the BJP in Uttar Pradesh due to lack of wider unity. Prasad praised the Congress saying it played a crucial role in independence struggle for the country and for its post-independence growth. Nitish Kumar, also the JD(U) president, had on Friday met Sonia Gandhi in Delhi and was learnt to have discussed the need for forging unity among the opposition parties to take on the BJP-led NDA. The JD(U) also used the meeting to call for a joint opposition candidate for the election to the President's post and urged Gandhi to take the lead in the matter.