Senior socialist leader Sharad Yadav has said that he does not see any possibility of a third front emerging before the 2019 general elections, and suggested that all opposition parties should unite to fight the ruling BJP.
Speaking to PTI-Bhasha, Yadav said efforts by a few political parties to provide an alternative to the BJP and the Congress would not affect the unity among the other opposition parties to put up a formidable front against the saffron party.
Asked whether the efforts by TMC chief Mamata Banerjee and TRS head K Chandrashekar Rao to cobble up a federal front of regional parties would damage the opposition unity, he said: "I don't think the third front will come into existence. Wait for some time, the people trying to form a third front will themselves start talking about a united opposition."
"This time, protecting the Constitution is the challenge. I am satisfied with the success achieved in uniting all parties and organisations on the platform of a 'shared legacy' to bring India out of the trouble the Modi government has pushed it into."
Asked if mistakes by young leaders of the Congress, the Samajwadi Party, the Rashtriya Janata Dal and the Rashtriya Lok Dal contributed to the BJP's spectacular rise, he said: "People who dismiss experience are punished, but when they correct those mistakes, they are immediately rewarded also."
Citing his political experince over four decades, Yadav said: "Whenever the political, social and economic situation in the country has turned delicate, opposition parties have come together to fight the opportunist forces."
Asked about comparing the current situation in India to that during the Emergency, Yadav said: "It is for the first time in the country that a central government is running on the recovery made from fuel prices."