Gangtok: Setting aside ideological differences, the Congress, the BJP and the CPI (M) have joined hands in Sikkim to fight Chief Minister Pawan Kumar Chamling’s Sikkim Democratic Front in the Assembly elections to be held later this year.

The alliance between the three national parties and two regional parties — Sikkim Himali Rajya Parishad Party and Sikkim Gorkha Prajatantrik Party — has been named the United Democratic Front (UDF), according to K.N. Upreti, Congress leader and UDF chief coordinator. Mr. Upreti told journalists here that there would be a direct contest between the SDF and the UDF in all 32 seats. — PTI