"We have written to EC to formally recognise the NCP as a national party as it fulfils the requirements and hope the recognition will be granted soon," NCP spokesman D N Dwivedi told reporters here.

Stressing the need for an alternative to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress, he said the NCP would take the initiative for building a `third front' of secular and like-minded parties. "Such an alternative is necessary as neither the BJP nor the Congress could get people's mandate in the recent Lok Sabha polls," he said.

Dwivedi said the NCP would try to engage these parties in dialogue for a new combination based on national consensus.

Referring to the change of leadership in Uttar Pradesh, he said the manner in which ousted chief minister Kalyan Singh reactedafter his removal, "exposed" the inherent weakness in the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA).