"We will field Samata Party candidates in all the 54 municipal seats in Gujarat," Fernandes declared addressing a press conference on Sunday. He said while the party had decided on candidates for 40 municipal seats, discussions were on for selection of candidates for the rest of the seats.

He said any electoral tie up with the BJP was not possible for the forthcoming municipal elections in Gujarat because "I have been told by my party men that the Samata Party has no coordination with the BJP at the State level.

Moreover, Fernandes said his party had restricted the tie-up with the BJP to the central level. "Our party has no representative from Gujarat either in the State Legislative Assembly or in the Lok Sabha," he said. However, he admitted that his party was in a weak position in the State.

Fernandes said that the decisions regarding the strengthening of the Samata Party in Gujarat besides its decision to go it alone in the forthcoming municipal elections were taken during his meeting with his party men held on Sunday.

Senior Congress leader and former RJP national general secretary Vishnu Pandya said, "I joined the Samata Party because George Fernandes is planning to transform it (party) into a force to reckon with on the economic, social and political front."

Fernandes, however, chipped in saying that "Pandya joined the Samta Party on my special request." He said, "Vishnubhai and I have been involved in quite a few struggles -- together we had fought against emergency." When asked how he, with a socialist background, is a part of a Government which is busy persuing its goals of liberalisation, Fernandes said when the Congress introduced the process of liberalisation about nine years ago he had said if it was not checked within 10 months, nobody would be able to do anything about it.

He said it was Congress Prime Minister Narsimha Rao who signed the World Trade Organisation treaty way back in 1994. "Ever since the treaty was signed by the Congress Government, everybody is finding his hands tied to his back," Fernandes said. He said his party was trying to persuade the Centre to reform the economic policies of the the successive Congress Governments.

While stating that the country's security arrangements were not changed in view of recent military take over in Pakistan, Fernandes said, "The Indian Government will not reciprocate Pakistan Chief Executive General Musharaff's offer of talks until that country removes its troops from the Line of Control and stopped fuelling cross-border terrorism. His offer of talks on the ground that Pakistan has started removing its troops from the International border cannot be acceptable to the Government because the threat from Pakistan is from the LOC where it has concentrated its troops."