Will the so-called Third Front partners be able to retain their ambitious unity till the end of this month, when the Finance Bill comes for voting in the Lok Sabha? Doubts are hovering around the Yadav duo—RJD chief Lalu Prasad and Samajwadi chief Mulayam Singh Yadav— as the two have taken different stands in the past one week on the issue.
On Monday, at the meeting of the Third Front parties, Prasad and Yadav had ‘agreed’ to vote in favour of a cut motion on the finance Bill against the price hike of petroleum products. But on previous Monday (April 5) the Yadav duo had promised the government managers that they would not “disturb” the government over the finance Bill.
After the all-party meeting on women’s reservation Bill ended on April 5, Lalu Prasad, Mulayam Singh Yadav, Sharad Yadav of JD(U) came for another private meeting at Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee’s office at room number 13. Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee had arranged for this meeting and she took the initiative to bring the Yadav trio to Mukherjee.
According to top sources in the UPA, in that meeting the three Yadavs voluntarily offered their ‘support’ for passing the Finance Bill and told Mukherjee that they would not try to vote in favour of any cut motion on the finance Bill.
In that private meeting, the Yadavs also requested Mukherjee, the leader of the Lok Sabha and the key firefighter of the government, not to proceed further with the women’s reservation Bill.
The Left parties, the main brain behind Monday’s meeting of the erstwhile, have already sufferd the flip-flop of Mulayam Singh Yadav and their relations with Prasad too, have been through heat and cold waves. After standing with the Left for almost a year against the Indo-US civil nuclear deal, the SP leadership suddenly dumped the Left at the last moment and bailed out the government on the crucial trust vote in 2008. Prasad too, has lost his appeal among the Left leadership and in the previous few elections the Left didn’t form electoral alliance with Prasad in Bihar. This time too, the CPI(M) is undecided to tie up with Prasad in Bihar for the forthcoming Assembly polls.
In the meeting of the Third Front partners, TDP boss N Chandrababu Naidu had raked up the topic of faulty Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) and even circulated a booklet among other participants on this issue. The Third Front partners have decided to meet later on this EVM issue and also it may take up the civil nuclear liability Bill in a separate meeting.