Lucknow: Former prime minister and JD(S) leader HD Deve Gowda on Saturday urged the Janata Parivar leaders to "come together" and "unite" against the communal forces.


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"Samajwadi Party is a landmark party to face communal forces. Senior leaders Mulayam Singh Yadav, Lalu (Prasad Yadav), Sharad (Yadav) should come together and go united to fight communal forces in the country," Deve Gowda said while addressing SP silver jubilee celebrations.


"I strongly believe the secular forces will come together under the leadership of Mulayam. There is some friction within SP. I ask SP to stay united and lead the tirade against communal forces in the country," he said.


Six offshoots of 'Janata Parivar' had merged together last year ahead of the Assembly elections in Bihar to form a new party to take on a resurgent BJP. The merger took place almost two decades after the then Janata Dal disintegrated in the 90s.


The former PM said he was the "happiest" man to attend the SP celebrations here.


On situation in Jammu and Kashmir, the former PM said, "Prohibitory orders were not imposed there even once (in his regime). The situation there now is not a secret."


Expressing hope that SP would win the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, he said, "Polls in UP will set the agenda for India's future and SP will win UP polls under Mulayam. When I was the Prime Minister for 10 months and he was my defence minister."