“The UPA Government may have won the vote in the Lok Sabha yesterday, but has lost the trust of the nation due to the immoral manner in which it engineered its win,” said the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister after a meeting of Left parties, the RLD, the BSP and UNPA units minus the Samajwadi Party and the AGP.

Hogging the limelight — flanked by former Andhra Pradesh chief minister Chandrababu Naidu, former prime minister Deve Gowda and Left leaders — Mayawati exuded confidence “condemning” the manner of the Government’s victory, requesting CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat to read out a resolution passed in the meeting.

While leaders present at the meeting decribed the group as an alternative to the UPA and NDA, they failed to announce a formal front or elect a leader. Instead they decided to launch a nationwaide campaign to begin the work.

“All parties present decided to launch a joint national-level campaign on pressing issues before the people,” Karat said, adding that the resolution had decided to focus against “price rise, agrarian distress, Indo-US nuclear deal, communal forces and gross misuse of Government institutions like the CBI for political purposes”.

“We are the real alternative to the Congress-led UPA and BJP-led NDA,” said Naidu, terming the Government’s victory on Tuesday as the “murder of democracy”. “Our aim is to provide an alternative to the UPA and NDA,” said RLD chief Ajit Singh.

“We have got together to take up these issues,” Karat said when asked if the meeting decided the formation of any kind of a pre-poll alliance.

“We are all leaders in our own right. We have decided to form committees to launch this campaign,” Mayawati said when asked whether the meeting elected a leader.

“We are fully behind the resolution today. We will cooperate in this struggle,” Deve Gowda said in Hindi.