MillenniumPost
Nation

Few takers for Third Front call

The political cauldron for now is refusing to boil over with the principal opposition, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), unwilling to take the bait thrown at them by Samajwadi Party leader Mulayam Singh Yadav. BJP spokespersons, Rajiv Pratap Rudy in New Delhi and Vijay Bahadur Pathak in Lucknow, insisted Mulayam Singh Yadav should first withdraw support from the UPA government and then criticise it.

Addressing a meeting on the home turf of Etawah in Central Uttar Pradesh on Wednesday, Yadav claimed that neither the Congress nor the BJP would be able to form the next government at the Centre and said the prospect of the third front government is very good.

Mulayam also said his son Akhilesh’s government would better Gujarat’s development model in the days to come. ‘People know about the double standards of the SP leaders. On one hand, they are supporting all the anti-people moves of the Centre, including the FDI in retail and price hike of petroleum products in Parliament, on the other hand they are staging protests on roads against the Centre just to show their fake concern,’ BJP state spokesperson Vijay Bahadur Pathak said in Lucknow.

Surprisingly for Yadav, there has not been many takers for his call for the third front. Mulayam further said, ‘The party has ditched the people of the country and will not return to power after 2014 Lok Sabha elections.’ In a remark very critical of the ruling party at the Centre, Yadav said, ‘Congress has always played with the sentiments of the people. Before every elections they allure the voters by giving several sops and benefits but after the elections they do the reverse. People are fed up with the UPA government, particularly the Congress, for their anti-people move and escalation of prices. Hence they will be taught a lesson by the voters this time.’

‘Mulayam Singh wants to keep the UPA government on tenterhooks in the run-up to the 2014 elections by exacting his pound of flesh in the form of a financial package for Uttar Pradesh. Therefore, such pronouncements,’ said a Congress leader.

Meanwhile, Biju Janata Dal (BJD) chief and Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik said he is watching the situation as it develops before taking a call on it.

Asked about his views on the formation of a Third Front, Patnaik said, ‘We will have to wait and watch and see how these matters progress.’
Next Story
Share it