Addressing his first press conference after taking over the responsibilities as the party president, he took the blame for disillusionment by the party leaders who deserted it to look for something better. "I would say that this disillusionment started in my time when I was party president and it may have been aggravated further later."

George Sahib is a senior leader of the party who had done tremendous work for the party and he shall continue to be the convenor of the party," he said in response to a question whether George Fernandes [Images] was to be blamed for dismemberment of the United Janata Dal.

As a part of his drive to forge unity amongst those who believe in the theory of Dr Ram Manohar Lohia, Sharad Yadav has chosen to consolidate the party in Karnataka first where there are more then three factions of the Janata Dal.

"We had solid presence in Karnataka. After that I would concentrate on Jharkhand where we had a siginificant presence," he said.

He denied that the party had come close to BJP because George Fernandes had identified himself with BJP and RSS.

"We were part of the National Democratic Alliance and there we are even today. Of course we are secular in our approach. We are not interested in the BJP rath yatra or jet yatra whatever they may like to call it.

We are there with them because of common programme which means so long as NDA is there, Ayodhya, Ram Mandir construction, uniform civil code and article 370 would not be touched," he clarified.

He ruled out formation of the third force for the time being.

"Mulayam Singh Yadav and Telugu Desam Party have joined hands more in their own self interest then the interest of the nation. For now there is no third force but the realignment of forces could not be ruled out after elections to five states," he said.

He denied that there was any difference between him and George Fernandes.

"Attempts were made to scuttle the elections. We got a letter from Anil Hegde, the chief election officer, that the elections have been postponed for three months on the eve of elections. That is why he had to be removed.

"We made all efforts to presuade George Sahib to see the reality on the ground but those around him gave him a different feed back and hence we got more votes from MP's and MLA's of the party from nine states. He got only 25 votes," he said.