EXCLUSIVE: THE Victorian arm of Katter’s Australian Party will merge with Country Alliance in a bid to win key rural seats in this year’s election.

The two parties will today announce their new unity - likely to be called Australian Country Alliance.

A newsletter to be sent out to KAP Victorian members this afternoon describes the merge as an opportunity “to form a bigger and stronger force in the Victorian politics and to further increase our chances this November at the polling booths”.

“For a while now we have been weighing the pros and cons of a merger, the balancing act in regards to our core values as well as being able to deliver improvements to our supporters both rural and urban and this balance is more than met through an amalgamation with Country Alliance.

KAP Victorian Division Chairman Robert Danieli, who ran as the party’s lead Senate candidate in the Federal Election, said there had been discussions of a potential merge before the Federal Election last year.

“Country Alliance were probably talking to us well and truly prior to the Federal Election to try and get some sort of affiliation so it’s been a long discussion and after the Federal Election we talked to each other and the more we spoke about it the more it became clearer that an amalgamation of the two parties would give us both a lot of strength,” Mr Danieli said.

The amalgamated parties hope to nab votes from the likes of the National Party with their combined “common sense old school values” approach.

Both party’s performances in the Federal Election were lacklustre but Country Alliance came close to winning some seats at the last Victorian Election including in Shepparton where they gained 20 per cent of the vote.

The amalgamated parties will have a tilt at the seat of Shepparton this year and with the controversial battle to save SPC Ardmona in the Goulburn Valley and following Nationals MP Jeanette Powell’s retirement announcement this weekend, Australian Country Alliance will hope to win the lower house seat.