Third Front needed to fight communal forces, says Akhilesh Yadav

NEW DELHI: Notwithstanding reluctance of some leaders of regional parties to make it public, UP Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav is strongly in favour of a Third Front to prevent communal forces from coming to power after the Lok Sabha elections.

However, he avoided a direct answer to whether his father and SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav would be a prime ministerial candidate of that front. He merely said India needs a Prime Minister who can understand the issues of poor and farmers.

"In UP as well as other parts of the country, communal forces have to be reined in. Only a Third Front can stop such forces. Because of the mistakes of the Congress the BJP is getting strengthened," he told PTI.

"We need a Third Front. Who will stop those forces in West Bengal -- either Trinamool or Communists. In Tamil Nadu, it is either DMK or AIADMK. In Bihar, the ruling party was with BJP but now they are willing to join the fight against communal forces. SP has been fighting against them for years and has never supported them," he said ruling out any tie up with BJP.

Leaders of non-BJP, non-Congress parties have been talking of fighting the challenge of BJP but probably with the exception of Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik they have not openly talked of a Third Front before the elections.

Even at yesterday's convention of 14 non-Congress, non-BJP parties here, there was no talk of forming a Front though the meeting itself was widely interpreted as the first step towards forming such a grouping.

Yadav also parried questions on SP's support to Congress. "As far as Congress is concerned, it is too early to say anything. First of all, I don't think they (Cong) are going to get that many seats. We supported Congress to prevent communal forces to come into power but it is due to the mistakes of Congress, the BJP has become stronger," Yadav said.

On BSP supremo Mayawati, he said that she has supported the BJP in the past and can again go with it.