India needs a Third Front, says Mulayam

Former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mulayam Singh Yadav has stated that the need of the hour was a Third Front as an alternative to the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Yadav told IANS here that the common man had suffered under both the BJP-led and Congress-led regimes. 'Price rise is one concrete instance of this,' he said.

He laughed when asked about continuing speculation of his Samajwadi Party and the Congress coming closer after years of bitter rivalry.

'Aren't you tired of this question?' he asked.

Pressed further, he spoke instead of the United National Progressive Alliance (UNPA), a conglomeration of regional parties that he heads. 'We are part of the UNPA and there are no two opinions about it.'

He parried a question if the UNPA could stand on its own vis-a-vis the BJP- and Congress-led coalitions. To further questions, he said the UNPA would meet in July to chalk out its future strategy.

Yadav taunted Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati but without taking her name.

'There is only one party now in this country which knows how many seats it will win (in the next Lok Sabha elections) and who will be the prime minister,' he said, referring obviously to Mayawati's claims that her Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) was poised to win a large number of seats in Uttar Pradesh.

Asked about the BSP's by-election victories by huge margins, Yadav said: 'That was all fraud. The administration connived in bogus voting, in some cases till past midnight.'

He said former state ministers Naresh Agarwal and Beni Verma, who have quit the Samajwadi Party accusing its general secretary Amar Singh of bringing in a culture of film stars, Yadav said: 'None of them is a patch on him (Amar).'

He said their going away would not have any effect on the Samajwadi Party. 'None of those who have left can match the stature and contribution of Amar Singh to the party,' he said.

'It is because of Amar Singh that the Samajwadi Party is on a national spectrum today and he should be credited for putting the UNPA together. If it had not been for him, we would not have stepped out of Uttar Pradesh,' he said.