"We want the RLM to work as an umbrella for secular and well-meaning parties daring to pull down the BJP-led Government," RLM convenor and Samajwadi Party president Mulayam Singh Yadav and RJD president Laloo Prasad Yadav told a joint press conference on the eve of the "Unity Rally", the first-ever rally of the front.

Charging the Centre with displaying ``abject failure'' on all fronts, the RLM leaders said the Congress should take the initiative to dislodge the Vajpayee Government and assured the front's full support to it in the endeavour.

"The BJP Government's stint has been characterised by strained relations with neighbouring countries, skyrocketing prices, alarming rise in unemployment, inflation and total collapse of the economy," Mulayam said.

Whentheir attention was drawn to Sonia Gandhi's reported statement that the Congress would prefer to form Government on its own in the event of the fall of the Vajpayee Ministry, Mulayam and Laloo said, "The question of coalition would arise only after we get rid of the communal and feudal dispensation."

"We will rally behind the Congress for replacing the BJP Government," they said.

The duo said RLM Lok Sabha members would vote for the Congress nominee in the election for the post of Deputy Speaker.

Asked about the response to the front from secular parties, Mulayam said, "It is overwhelming..... Leaders of the stature of Buta Singh and Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (Soren) have already joined us and many others will follow suit."

Reasserting that the RLM MPs would continue to frustrate any move to introduce the Women's Reservation Bill in its present form, they said the Bill should be suitably amended to accommodate women belonging to the minorities and Schedule Castes, Tribes and Other Backward Classes.