No Centre without SP: Mulayam

Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, a contender to the post of the prime minister, declared on Monday that no government could be formed at the Centre without the support of his party.

The announcement comes in the backdrop of an alliance between the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and the Communist Party of India on Sunday and reported projection of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalitha as a possible candidate for the country’s top job should a third front come to power.

“Give me seats. If we have enough number of seats, we will be in a position to call the shots at the Centre,” Mulayam said while addressing a rally at Gonda, about 200 km from here. Indicating that the leader of the front, if it comes into existence, would be decided by the number of seats won by the constituent parties, Mulayam said that any government at Delhi could be formed on his party’s conditions if it was able to win good number of seats. “Uttar Pradesh (UP) has 80 Lok Sabha seats. That is why Narendra Modi is eyeing UP,” he said.

Earlier, Mulayam had declared that he did nurture prime ministerial ambition. He told party workers to make sure that the party won about 50 seats in the next general election. “If we win 50 seats we will be in a strong position. We may even form our own government,” he went on to add. 

The SP supremo again targeted BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi and accused him of spreading false propaganda about development in Gujarat. “Modi has no idea about development in UP. He is telling lies. He should change his advisers who write his speeches,” he said. Mulayam also said that Modi was involved in the “genocide” of Muslims in Gujarat.

The SP supremo also lashed out at Aam Aadmi Party leader and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal for including his name in the list of corrupt people. “He (Kejriwal) thinks that only he is honest and rest are corrupt. I do not want to file a case else I would have him sent to jail,” Mulayam said.