Patna: The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) headed by Lalu Prasad has asked its leaders and all secular forces to be on maximum alert, saying the Lok Sabha elections scheduled for April 2019 could be held earlier than that, given political developments in the country.

Prasad fears the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) could opt for early elections encouraged by the success of the party in recent state polls.

The RJD leader, whose party is a coalition partner in the ruling Grand Alliance government in Bihar headed by chief minister Nitish Kumar, expressed these apprehensions at a meeting of party leaders held at his residence on Sunday evening.

“We all have to be on maximum alert since Prime Minister Narendra Modi could advance the Lok Sabha elections to cash in on his party’s popularity wave, which still continues,” Prasad reportedly told the media at the end of the party meeting.

He said BJP wants the national elections to be conducted together with assembly elections in Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh scheduled for next year.

Both Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh have BJP governments.

The RJD chief also announced plans to hold a three-day special training camp, to train party workers about how to counter the BJP in the coming general elections.

The three-day camp will be held at Bodh Gaya from May 2 this year.

The party has planned to invite three types of experts — such as social thinkers, economists and Political experts — at its marathon training session to train the party workers in various things.

While sociologists will tell the party workers about the importance of caste census, economists will inform them about the merits/demerits of the demonetisation drive launched by the Narendra Modi government in November last year.

Similarly, political experts will brief the RJD cadres about the possible political strategy of the BJP and how to counter them.

The RJD has been strongly protesting on the streets against the demonetisation drive, saying it has left millions of people jobless, although the Janata Dal United (JD-U) has supported it, describing it as being in the national interest.

At the meeting, the RJD also announced plans to bring the scattered secular parties together on a single platform to effectively counter Modi in the next Lok Sabha polls. Prasad himself will be initiating the move.

“We will talk to all secular leaders, such as Trinamool Congress Party chief Miss Mamata Banerjee, Smajawadi Party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav, and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Miss Mayawati to carve out a new secular block to take on the BJP in the next general elections. We will decide PM the candidate together,” Prasad informed.

The development comes amid demand by the JD-U, its coalition partner, to project chief minister Kumar as the Prime Ministerial candidate. “It’s time all anti-BJP parties should come together and elect Nitish Kumar as their leader. He is the lone alternative to Prime Minister Modi,” state JD-U spresident Vashishtha Narayan Singh told the media on Sunday.