New Delhi, Oct. 28: Shivpal Yadav today carried a message from Mulayam Singh Yadav to Ajit Singh, saying the Samajwadi Party was willing to strike an electoral alliance with the Rashtriya Lok Dal, sources said.

The offer is an acknowledgment by Mulayam that his party faces an uphill task retaining power in Uttar Pradesh, where the BJP has pulled out the stops to win the elections early next year.

Shivpal, the state Samajwadi chief and youngest brother of Mulayam, was in Delhi to invite "likeminded" parties - the Janata splinters - to the Samajwadis' silver jubilee celebrations in Lucknow on November 5.

This was the official reason for the meeting with Ajit too, but Shivpal used the opportunity to pass on the alliance offer, sources said.

"Ajit Singh too appeared keen on an alliance," a Samajwadi politician said.

Ajit's party, which enjoys substantial support in western Uttar Pradesh, particularly among the powerful Jat community, has already tied up with Nitish Kumar's Janata Dal United.

Shivpal has invited Nitish, Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad and Janata Dal Secular president H.D. Deve Gowda to the November 5 event to try and project a united Janata parivar.

Sources said Mulayam had realised that the ugly feud in his family, between his son and chief minister Akhilesh and Shivpal, had lowered his party's stocks in the lead-up to the elections. He therefore feels the need for an alliance.

The Samajwadi national president's main concern relates to Muslim voters, his core support base after the Yadavs.

Party sources said Mulayam was keen to assure the Muslims that he was very much in the reckoning and they should therefore not desert him.

Mayawati too has made a strong pitch for the state's approximately 18 per cent Muslim vote. She has exhorted the community not to help the BJP by wasting their votes on the Samajwadis.

Mulayam, desperate to counter Mayawati's campaign, seems to believe that a coming together of leaders like Ajit, Nitish and Lalu Prasad would help him send an unambiguous message to the Muslims.

An alliance with Ajit would also help the Samajwadis secure a foothold in western Uttar Pradesh, where they have traditionally been weak. The offer suits Ajit too: he is eager to regain lost ground after a wipe-out in the 2014 general election.

The Janata Dal United is playing mediator in the tie-up efforts and is also trying to draft in the Congress.

Prashant Kishor, Nitish's poll manager in Bihar and now the Congress's strategist in Uttar Pradesh, was present at Shivpal's meeting with Janata Dal United secretary-general K.C. Tyagi on Wednesday.

Sources said the Congress was not too keen on a tie-up with the Samajwadis, fearing it would not be given a respectable seat share. Janata Dal United mediators are trying to convince the party that it's worth making such a compromise to stop the BJP in the key state.