As the third phase of Lok Sabha polls draws near, political parties have started positioning themselves for future alliances, signalling further changes in the existing pre-poll ties.
A few days after RJD boss Lalu Prasad declared he is open about taking Left’s support, Samajwadi Party today ruled out the possibility of joining hands with the Left.
Interestingly, the SP has joined hands with RJD and Ramvilas Paswan’s LJP for consolidating their vote banks in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand. So, even before the alliance of SP, RJD and LJP could complete its fight together, the SP has given indication that the alliance or so-called “Fourth Front” may split and join different forces after the 2009 Lok Sabha elections.
“Neither we are in the Third Front, nor we have any link with the CPI(M) and such a situation will never arise even in the post-poll scenario as long as Mayawati is with them,” SP General Secretary Amar Singh told reporters here.
Recently, when the SP started feeling cornered by the Congress, Amar Singh had tried to revive the relations with the Left but got ignored by the CPI(M). He had even called up CPI(M) General Secretary Prakash Karat for a meeting but Karat refused to meet him.
Even as Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party — SP’s arch rival in Uttar Pradesh — has not yet enrolled itself formally in Karat’s efforts to form a Third Front government, the Left leadership wants to wait and watch before warming up to the SP again.
The SP leadership, however, has kept its option open to join hands with the Congress after the results come out on May 16.
“The Congress-led UPA ran the government for the last one year with our help after the Left parties withdrew support to it but they turned down our offer of 17 seats in Uttar Pradesh. We had never been so ungrateful. However, we are not averse to a tie-up with the Congress in a post-poll scenario,” Singh said today.
