Talking to the mediapersons, he said that the party would stake claim to Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Ropar, Ferozepur and Hoshiarpur seats.

Ganesh announced that the formation of third front to contest the elections would be formally announced in the next couple of days for which all formalities had been finalised and only discussions regarding the seat-sharing issue were left.

He said the party had taken a lead in forming the third front against the Congress, the Bharatiya Janta Party and other fundamentalist forces and that the All India Shiromani Akali Dal, MCPI, SAD (Amritsar), SAD (democratic) and many other parties had now agreed to forge an alliance to defeat the designs of fundamental forces.

He also hinted that Ranjit Singh may be requested to become the convenor of third front in Punjab to forge unity among the different political parties.

Regarding seat-sharing, he said the party had demanded five seats to contest the elections but hinted that it might agree to contest three seats including Ropar, Jalandhar and Hoshiarpur to forge an alliance with other like-minded political parties.

When asked about the demand for Khalistan raised by SAD (Amritsar) and other parties' reluctance to join hands with it on this issue, he said Simranjit Singh Mann had assured them he would not raise the demand as the people were not interested in the creation of Khalistan. He also claimed that the Janata Dal would be able to mould SAD (Amritsar) and succeed in bringing it into the national mainstream.

Ganesh, who was here to preside over the emergent meeting of the state executives, senior party leaders and district presidents, said the party wanted to contest all the 13 seats in the state and that he had already submitted panels with five aspirants each for every seat to the national leadership. He added that the state leadership was bound to honour the decision of the party high command.