SP plans Third Front, Congress says Delhi far away

Mocking the Samajwadi Party's (SP) plans of forging a Third Front before the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, Congress leader and HRD minister Kapil Sibal Wednesday said Delhi is far away for the SP.

Sibal said: "Abhi Dilli durasth (Delhi is still far away). This is what a Mughal emperor had once said."

Urging all regional parties opposed to the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) to come together, SP general secretary Mohan Singh Wednesday said: "We have sown the seeds (for a Third Front) and now they have to be nurtured."

The SP moved a draft political resolution on the first day of its two-day national executive here Wednesday.

"We urge all regional parties opposed to the BJP and the Congress to forge the new front," Mohan Singh said.

However, he indicated that his party would prefer to forge ties with the Left rather than with the Trinamool Congress.

Sibal also took potshots at the SP for criticising the government by saying that they should do so on the floor of parliament.

"Political parties are entitled to criticise the government. There should be criticism. There is nothing wrong in criticism, it is the heart of democratic functioning. Those who are criticising the government should be participating in criticising government on the floor of parliament so that we can answer," he said.