New Delhi, Sept. 18: Newly appointed acting president of the Sharad Yadav faction of the JDU, Chhotubhai Amarsinh Vasava, today said his party in Gujarat will align with the Congress to take on the ruling BJP in the Assembly poll expected in December.

Vasava, the lone Gujarat MLA of the JDU whose vote is believed to have paved the victory of the Congress's Ahmed Patel - Sonia Gandhi's political secretary - in last month's Rajya Sabha polls, said he was committed to opposing the BJP. 'The JDU will enter into an alliance with the Congress and contest the Assembly elections against the BJP in Gujarat,' Vasava said today, a day after he was elected acting president at a national executive meeting.

The Sharad faction has claimed that they were the 'real JDU' and claimed the party would initiate disciplinary action against Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar for allegedly trying to usurp the party in an 'undemocratic manner' and changing the party line.

Vasava, a veteran MLA of the JDU, is believed to have considerable following in the tribal region of Gujarat.

Amid the ongoing tussle between the two camps of the JDU, Rajya Sabha MP Ali Anwar Ansari said he and Sharad had sought one month's time to respond to the disqualification petition by the Nitish faction to Rajya Sabha chairman M. Venkaiah Naidu against both Sharad and Ansari.

'I met the Rajya Sabha secretary-general and sought one month's time to respond to the disqualification notice,' Ansari said. The MP, however, feared Sharad and he could be disqualified without following the due procedure. He said the Ethics Committee and the Privileges Committee of the House, which deals with petitions of disqualification of members, was still to be constituted.

'But who knows. There could be pressure from the top to disqualify us hurriedly,' Ansari said.