Will make efforts to include Left parties in Grand Alliance,

RLSP chief and former union minister Upendra Kushwaha on Sunday advocated the expansion of the five-party Grand Alliance in Bihar, asserting that efforts will be made to bring Left parties into the fold.

The coalition comprising the RJD, the Congress, the RLSP, former CM Jitan Ram Manjhi's HAM(S) and former Bollywood set designer Mukesh Sahni's VIP had bagged just one out of state's 40 Lok Sabha seats earlier this year.

"We have to expand the Grand Alliance. We will make efforts to bring the Left parties such as the CPI, the CPI(M) and the CPI(ML) into the fold," Kushwaha told reporters here at party office.

Asked about the upcoming by-elections to five assembly and one Lok Sabha seats, Kushwaha said the grand alliance will fight the polls together.

While the assembly seats of Kishanganj, Nathnagar, Belhar, Simri Bakhtiyarpur and Daraundha were vacated by legislators, who had contested and won the general election, the Samastipur Lok Sabha seat fell vacant following the .