Hours before the Third Front dinner meeting at her residence on New Delhi’s Gurdwara Rakabganj road, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati side-stepped the contentious issue of prime ministership, saying the matter would be decided after the results were announced.

Addressing a press conference in the Capital, she said her party would try its best to stop Congress- or BJP-led alliances from returning to power at the Centre, in coordination with the Left parties and other Third Front leaders. However, Mayawati added, the BSP would stick to its stand of contesting the elections on its own and not entering into any seat-sharing arrangements with any party across the country.

Hoping that their attempts to stop the Congress and BJP would bear fruit this time, Mayawati did not deny that the BSP was aiming to capture power at the Centre.

However, what would have gladdened the Third Front’s heart ahead of the crucial dinner meeting was Mayawati’s assertion that a decision on the prime ministerial candidate could wait.

Earlier, her party was said to have put the condition that she be their PM candidate before extending support.

Sunday was a day of hectic political activity in the Capital, with Third Front leaders holding a meeting of their own before supping with Mayawati, and CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury meeting NDA Convenor Sharad Yadav (they insisted it was routine).

After their meeting at AKG Bhavan, also attended by the BJD’s Jay Panda, an appeal was issued to all “democratic forces” to join hands to defeat the UPA and NDA.

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