Enemy's enemies

Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Mulayam Singh Yadav's son and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav was in Bihar on Tuesday to formally launch the 'third front' in the state's Assembly elections. The new coalition could play spoiler for its former partners by splitting anti-Bharatiya Janata Party votes in many constituencies. Already, Mulayam Singh Yadav and Nitish Kumar, erstwhile partners in the anti-BJP crusade, have begun trading barbs. Running for a third term as Bihar chief minister, Kumar was virulent as he wanted to know if Yadav had been appointed "vice-chancellor of the university of secularism" after Mulayam Singh asked, "Who is secular? People who ran the government with the BJP's support for 12 years?" The SP announced over the weekend that it had teamed up with five parties, including the Nationalist Congress Party and the Janadhikar Party, to form a 'third front', and that they had reached a seat-sharing pact for the Bihar Assembly polls in October-November.