Dhaka, Apr 13 (UNB) - BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia will formally announce on April 18 the expansion of the 4-party alliance that her party leads.

From the March 12 grand rally in the capital, she had announced that the BNP-led four-party alliance would be expanded with the inclusion of the like-minded parties.

Khaleda, now in Singapore for her health checkup, is expected to return home on April 16.

Mustafizur Rahman Iran, chairman of Bangladesh Labour Party, a component of the expanded alliance, told UNB on Friday that the expanded alliance will be floated on March 18 through a press conference to be held at the Diploma Engineers Institute.

Iran said he got an invitation letter from BNP to attend the program of the declaration of the expanded alliance.

The expanded BNP-led alliance is likely to be named as Combined Democratic Alliance. It will be composed of 16 like-minded political parties -- BNP, Jamaat-e-Islami, BJP, IOJ, Khelafat Majlish, LDP, JAGPA, Labour Party, NAP, Kalyan Party, NPP, Muslim League, Democratic League and Islamic Party.