The Third Front in Bihar was jolted in the midst of the Assembly polls as Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) on Thursday decided to walk out of the grouping citing “pro- BJP statements” by Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav. NCP general secretary and MP Tariq Anwar announced the party’s decision to quit the six-party Third Front at a press conference in Patna.
Anwar said the decision was in reaction to Yadav’s purported comment that there was a wave in favour of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and that it would form the government in Bihar.
“The statement by Mulayam while campaigning for his party’s candidates in Rohtas and Aurangabad in the second phase of electioneering is sad and unfortunate,” charged the NCP Lok Sabha member from Katihar. The second phase of polling in Bihar is to be held on Friday.
Anwar, NCP’s face in Bihar, had said that at the time they joined hands that the Third Front had come together to uphold secularism by fighting the Congress and BJP. “But the SP chief’s statement to directly or indirectly help BJP betrays that understanding,” he said.
NCP, which had joined the Grand Secular Alliance of JD(U), RJD and Congress initially and was allocated three seats, had quit that grouping charging it was being underestimated by Lalu Prasad and Nitish Kumar.