Samajwadi Party (SP) and Janata Dal United (JDU) have confirmed that a Third Front government will be formed post the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.
"Third Front will be formed after 2014 polls. Neither Congress nor BJP, it will be the Third Front that will get numbers in 2014 and form the next government. A Third Front will be formed after the elections. We are holding talks in this regard with Prakash Karatji and AB Bardhanji," SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav told ANI news.
Mulayam will meet Communist Party of India Marxist general secretary Prakash Karat in Delhi on 30 October, along with other political parties interested in the formation of a Third Front.
JDU president Sharad Yadav confirmed the news saying, "Yes, it's right. Talks are going on."
SP chief Mulayam refused to name the head of the Third Front if it comes to power. "We have not decided the PM candidate yet. The Third Front will take a call on its PM nominee after the elections," he said.
Currently, SP has been externally supporting the UPA government at the Centre while JDU severed its 17-year-old alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) recently and stepped out of National Democratic Alliance (NDA). JDU president and Bihar CM Nitish Kumar broke the alliance after Gujarat CM Narendra Modi was nominated as NDA's prime ministerial candidate.
BJP vice president Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi took a swipe at Mulayam's remarks on the possibility of a Third Front government coming to power. "Before every election they present this idea like expired chocolates, we know what happens later," he said.
His colleague in the BJP, Balbir Punj, mocked Yadav saying he was 'day dreaming'.
"Mulayam Singhji is a very senior politician and if he wants to do day-dreaming, I have absolutely no issue on that. And Mr. A.B. Bardhan represents a party whose vote share in the Indian politics is not even three percent or four percent, which qualified them to be a national party," he said.
