Mulayam 3rd front call: Some wait, watch

SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav’s call for a “third front” ahead of 2014 general elections has invited mixed reactions from political parties with a group of political parties finding nothing “unusual” in “early excitement” over the issue, but preferring to “wait and watch the situation”, while a set of other political outfits, including the two national parties, have rejected the very idea. Even as the Congress-led UPA government at the Centre is heavily dependent on the outside support of the SP for its survival, there appears to be eagerness on the part of Mr Yadav to go to polls early. Therefore, he has repeatedly been raking up the issue of realignment of political forces and a possible “third front”. He has even gone on record describing Congress as “thug (cheat)” and has soared up excitement among the political parties well ahead of the next elections. In its bid to read the excitement CPI(M), which may prove to be an anchor for a possible alternative alliance, said, it is a result of the “growing uncertainty” of the UPA government that has been reduced to a minority. Though there was nothing unusual in the talk of new alliances and excitement over it in the run-up to general elections, the party said with nearly a year left for the 2014 elections, “such excitement seems to have begun early mainly due to the growing uncertainty of the UPA-II alliance”. “This government was already reduced to a minority when the Trinamool Congress withdrew support. With the DMK now doing so, it has been reduced to a further minority government. Its survival will now increasingly depend on the outside support that it garners from the Samajwadi Party and the BSP,” senior party leader Sitaram Yechury said in the editorial of the party mouthpiece.