Mulayam now reaches out to Pawar

Samajwadi Party (SP) supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav has now reached out to Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Sharad Pawar.

 Mulayam is  hoping that neither the Congress nor the BJP will be able to form the next government at the Centre and that a Third Front, comprising non-Congress and non-BJP parties may take shape at some point.

Mulayam on Sunday, while speaking at a function in Varanasi, about 275 km from Lucknow, praised Pawar,  though he launched a scathing attack on the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government for failing to control prices, he sought to give a clean chit to the union agriculture minister on this count.

The SP supremo said Pawar had agreed with him (Mulayam) on his contention with regard to inflation but added that the union minister was not in a position to do anything.

“Sharad Pawar is a good person. He agreed to what I said in the Lok Sabha during discussion on price rise but he is helpless,” Mulayam said as he squarely blamed the Congress for sky rocketing prices.

“Pawar's position is not very strong within the UPA,” he said apparently trying to absolve the ‘Maratha Strongman’ of any blame for the rising prices.

SP leaders here said Mulayam might need support of Pawar in the event of formation of a Third Front government after the next Lok Sabha elections. “Pawar is not very happy with the Congress. He may also leave the UPA. He is a possible ally of SP,” said a senior SP leader while speaking to Deccan Herald.

Mulayam had also in the past hinted at reviving the Third Front and hoped that the SP would lead the same with the maximum number of seats in its kitty  notwithstanding his outside support to the Congress-led UPA government at the Centre.

Mulayam had on several occasions clearly indicated that he was nurturing bigger ambition and was all for the revival of the third force though he did not make it clear which were the parties who could be part of such a front if and when it was revived.

“Parties other than the Congress and BJP are likely to do well in the next lok sabha elections. In many states, these parties will do well,” he said, at a meeting of the party leaders here recently.

Mulayam told them that the SP could play a crucial role in government formation.