Mulayam downplays 'BJP agent' remarks

Samajwadi Party (SP) supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav on Friday reiterated his party's support to the UPA presidential nominee Pranab Mukherjee and sought to down play Congress leader Rashid Alvi's remarks dubbing him “BJP agent”.

Yadav, however, dropped hints that he was not averse to the idea of a Third Front before or after the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

“Alvi has been admonished by his own party leaders. The Congress is nowhere (in reckoning) in the state,” the SP chief said as he reiterated his party's support to Pranab Mukherjee.

On the Third Front he said that any decision in this regard would be taken in the light of the prevailing political situation then (in 2014).

“In politics the situations keep changing. Decisions also change accordingly,” he added.

The SP leader said that his party's forthcoming executive committee meeting to be held in Kolkata from July 10 next had been deferred. The meeting would now be held after the presidential polls. The venue would remain the same.

He also rubbished reports that his party might change the venue in view of its strained relations with Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee following SP’s decision to back Mukherjee for President.