Undeterred by their defeat in Parliament, leaders of 10 parties, including the Left and BSP, have allied to launch a nation-wide campaign against Indo-US nuclear deal, price rise and agrarian crisis in a bid to emerge as a 'third front'.

The 10 party grouping, apart from the CPI (M) and BSP includes TDP, CPI, Forward Bloc, RSP, JD(S), RLD, INLD and Jharkhand Vikas Morcha (JVM), whose leaders gathered for a breakfast meeting hosted by the UP chief minister and BSP leader at her residence in New Delhi.

The breakfast meeting was also attended by A B Bardhan and D Raja (CPI), Debabrata Biswas (FB), T J Chandrachoodan and Abani Roy (RSP), K Yerrannaidu (TDP), Ajay Chautala (INLD), Babulal Marandi (JVM) and Sitaram Yechury (CPI-M).

"The UPA government may have won the vote in Lok Sabha yesterday, but has lost the trust of the nation due to the immoral manner in which it engineered its win," Mayawati told a press conference in New Delhi today after leaders of these parties said they had worked out a fresh political realignment. She said the way in which the UPA gathered votes for its victory in the vote of confidence yesterday shows that democracy has been "defeated and murdered".

Evading a direct reply when asked who would head the new group, Mayawati said all were equal.

Announcing a nation-wide joint campaign, CPI (M) General Secretary Prakash Karat said that though the government had won the confidence motion, it had "lost the trust of the nation".

TRS leader K Chandrasekhar Rao, who attended the meeting for a brief while, said his party would work together with BSP and other parties, before leaving for Hyderabad.

On whether a new front had been created, Karat said it was not so as these parties had got together to launch a joint campaign and work out future action on several issues,  such as campaign against communal forces and "gross misuse" of institutions like CBI for "political purposes".

Karat said the Manmohan Singh government had lost all moral authority to remain in power because of the manner in which the victory was secured in Parliament. 

Condemning the "murder of democracy", N Chandrababu Naidu (TDP) said it was a "national shame" that the government has stuck to power by indulging in horse-trading, manipulation, threat and blackmail".

"If you take into account the cross voting, the opposition has a clear majority," Naidu claimed.

Naidu asserted that the coming together of these parties showed that "we are the real alternative to Congress, UPA and NDA. We will be number one in the coming days".

In a similar statement, RLD leader Ajit Singh said this grouping would provide an alternative to UPA and NDA and create "a real force in the country".

Speaking in Hindi, former Prime Minister and JD(S) President H D Deve Gowda assured his party's full cooperation to the joint campaign.

On whether AIADMK chief Jayalalithaa would be invited to join the group, CPI leader A P Bardhan said the issue had not been discussed. "We are proceeding step by step," he said.

The meeting constituted a committee to conduct the nationwide campaign, the dates of which "will be announced very soon".