Amar Singh sticks to secular front line

Making it clear that the Samajwadi Party will have nothing to do with the National Democratic Alliance after the elections, party leader Amar Singh yesterday said his party would work towards a broad secular alliance.

However, he said official contact with the Congress on the issue of leadership of the alliance would be made only after the elections.

Launching an attack on Finance Minister Jaswant Singh's statement in Lucknow that cases of Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA) detainees "" like Rajput leader Raja Bhaiyya "" should be reviewed, Amar Singh said the BJP had woken up rather late on the issue. He said the statement was aimed appeasing the Rajput community in Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's constituency.

However, it was clear that Singh's attack on the BJP was largely to clear the air following the speculation that in the case of a hung Parliament, given a choice between Sonia Gandhi and Atal Bihari Vajpayee for prime ministership, the Samajwadi Party would prefer the latter.

The fact that Samajwadi Party played no politics over the sari stampede in Lucknow indicated that the party was leaning towards the NDA and had kept silent to protect the prime minister.

The Samajwadi Party leadership was hurt when Vajpayee said there was no ideological difference between it and the BJP as it realised the statement was designed to confuse its minority voters. It asked CPM leader Harkishan Singh Surjeet to issue a statement that the Samajwadi Party would never go with the NDA.