``As per the decision taken by LTC president Naresh Agarwal, we will launch our party's Mumbai unit next week and the state unit in the third week of September. In the coming weeks, we will make our presence felt in the metropolis,'' Rizvi said.

He said preparations for the elections to the Maharashtra Assembly and the Mumbai Municipal Corporation would begin soon after the party's launch in the state.

``We will have an electoral understanding with like-minded secular parties and we will ensure the defeat of communal forces,'' Rizvi declared.

The Lok Tantrik Congress, if its plans materialise, will add to the list of major political parties throwing their hats in the electoral ring in the state. Apart from the recognised political parties, it will also have to contend with SureshKalmadi's Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi. The former Railway minister has declared his intention to contest all 288 Assembly seats in the next elections.

Rizvi, who also runs several educational institutions in Uttar Pradesh and Mumbai, said he would strive to unite ``secular people from all walks of life'' for the Lok Tantrik Congress.

The educationist-turned-politician was instrumental in launching Mulayam Singh's Samajwadi Party in Mumbai and Maharashtra and had unsuccessfully contested the 1996 Parliamentary elections from North West Mumbai, where he lost to Madhukar Sarpotdar of the Shiv Sena by a margin of 60,000 votes.

``When I found that no known persons were associating themselves with the Samajwadi Party and that its leaders were exploiting members of the minority communities, I decided to quit the party,'' Rizvi said.

It was then that Naresh Agarwal urged him to consider contesting the Rajya Sabha elections as an LTC nominee. ``Since it was a better offer, I agreed,'' Rizvi said.

He was electedto the Upper House in last month's biennial elections.

As far as Maharashtra is concerned, Rizvi said, his party would aim to ``restore the fallen image of the state.''

He said there was ``an urgent need'' to amend the industrial policy of the state. ``The inflow of industrial investment has come to a grinding halt as leading industrialists are being lured towards Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh,'' he said.

Moreover, the LTC leader maintained, the alliance government had lost its credibility after the manner in which it handled the row over the Enron power project. ``It (the Government) had declared that the project would be scrapped, but when it came to power, it accepted the project as it is,'' Rizvi observed.

Deteriorating law and order, inefficient administration and ``rampant interference'' in day-to-day administration were the main reasons industrialists opted to invest in neighbouring states, he added.