The 38-year-old, who won UP on a forward-looking agenda, said today that all the recent debate about a political Third Front was a good beginning. Only yesterday, his father and SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav had said that there was no talk of a Third Front yet.
Mulayam Singh has been one of the pivots of efforts over the years to consolidate smaller parties of the country and the Left into a non-Congress, non-BJP front as an electoral option at the Centre. Speculation about a Third Front has gained momentum ever since the Congress, which heads a troubled coalition at the Centre, got a drubbing in the assembly elections in Punjab and UP, with talk that UPA allies like Mamata Banerjee might not be averse to walking over to such a third front. This amid reports that regional parties that rule states or that sense a chance to do well in their states are now are looking at the possibility of new alignments and early general elections. Parties like the BJP and its Punjab ally Akali Dal have talked openly about early elections.
Akhilesh Yadav is not looking at early general elections. He said today that, "The chances of a mid-term poll happening doesn't look likely." Mr Yadav was also at pains to explain that his focus was UP and only that.
The SP leader did however extend an invitation to UPA partner Mamata Banerjee to attend his swearing-in ceremony. He also invited J Jayalalithaa, AIADMK chief and Tamil Nadu chief minister. After initially indicating that she would go attend both Mr Yadav's swearing-in and that of the Akalis in Punjab, Ms Banerjee's party said that because the Assembly session in West Bengal begins this week, Ms Banerjee will remain in Kolkata but will send representatives to Lucknow and Chandigarh. Her changed itinerary followed a warning from the Congress which spelled out its displeasure. There are reports that Ms Banerjee is being looked upon reportedly being wooed as a possible partner is there is a move to launch Third Front.
Now there are reports that Mamata Banerjee is not going to Chandigarh for the Akali swearing in, but NCP chief and another Congress ally Sharad Pawar is likely to attend.
The Congress though can take heart from words from Bihar. Both sides of the political spectrum in the state - Lalu Prasad Yadav of the RJD and Nitish Kumar of the JD(U) - rule out the possibility of a Third Front in the near future. Nitish Kumar who is Chief Minister of Bihar and runs a government in partnership with the BJP said, "We can't see anything shaping up in the form of a third front right now."
Lalu Prasad was more eloquent. "It is a closed chapter. I have a bitter-sweet experience of the third front. But I see no signs of it," he said. Lalu Prasad also said he did not see the possibility of mid-term elections.
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