Patna: In a significant political development, a “grand alliance” of three major secular parties has finally taken shape to take on the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) in the upcoming assembly by-elections in Bihar scheduled for next month.

The by-elections will be held for 10 assembly seats that fell vacant after the lawmakers were elected to the Lok Sabha in the recently held general elections.

As per the deal, the ruling Janata Dal (United) and Lalu Prasad-led the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) will contest four seats each whereas two seats have gone to Congress. A formal announcement to this effect will be made at the end of this month or in the first week of August.

The agreement followed a telephonic conversation between RJD chief Prasad and JD-U leader Nitish Kumar. The Congress has already announced it would be a part of the grand alliance saying seats are not the issue.

“The alliance has been finalised. We will fight the by-polls together,” Food and Civil Supplies Minister Shyam Rajak of the JD-U told the media on Saturday evening after meeting with Prasad.

The alliance became more than clear during an iftar party thrown by the RJD chief at his residence in Patna on Saturday evening. A host of ruling JD-U leaders and ministers attended the function and served meals to one another much to the delight of photographers at the scene. It has been more than two decades that such bon homie was seen among the leaders of the two parties.

Observers say the arch rivals were forced to set aside their differences out of sheer political compulsions. In fact, both the parties faced a severe existential crisis during the Lok Sabha elections as together they were able to win just six out of Bihar’s 40 seats against 31 seats bagged by NDA candidates despite a sharp polarisation of votes.

The main cause of their defeat was the sharp division of secular votes as they lost even after together polling over 45 per cent of votes against around 38 per cent polled by the NDA.

Post-alliance, however, their chance at victory seems to have been brightened. Now they feel the grand alliance will make a clean sweep not only in the coming by-polls but also in state assembly polls due in October next year. The coming by-polls will be the first major test of the alliance.

Meanwhile, the notification for by-polls to 10 seats has been issued leading to the beginning of the nomination process. The elections are scheduled for August 21.