The Samajwadi Party (SP) sought to downplay the issue of leadership of the fledgling Fourth Front,which also includes the Lalu Prasad-led Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and Ram Vilas Paswan-led Lok Janshakti Party (LJP). The leaders of the three parties will meet in Lucknow on April 3 to announce their agenda and future strategy. The parties have already announced that they will not put up candidates against each other in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. There is no single leader of the front all of us are leaders sab mukhiya hain, said Yadav,who was in Etawah on Wednesday to campaign for SP candidates. He added: We have decided to come together on a single platform and will campaign jointly. But most important is our ties with Kalyan Singh it has immensely strengthened the SP. The Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party are fighting for their existence. The SP will emerge as the kingmaker after the Lok Sabha polls,as no government can come to power at the Centre without our support, Yadav added. The SP chief further said: The issue is not the leadership of the morcha but who gets what in the elections. Lalu Yadav,with 25 parliamentarians,is running the Rail Ministry,while a party with 11 MPs is in control of the Civil Aviation Ministry,said Yadav. While Ram Vilas Paswans party,with five MPs,is also holding an important ministry,the SP,with 35 MPs which played a crucial role in saving the UPA government has no role in national politics,he said. He added that the UPA government,which is surviving on their support,is refusing to help them. He also claimed that UP was at the centrestage of national politics. A senior SP leader said: The fourth front is an electoral alliance which is yet to be given a name. Those raising the issue of leadership are trying to abort the front even before it takes a concrete shape. Why dont you ask this question to the Third Front as they are also functioning without a leader? Ashok Mishra of the state CPI,however,claimed that it was ridiculous to compare the Third Front with the SP-RJD-LJP alliance. The coming together of SP,RJD and LJP is not a front at all its a product of the internal contradictions of the UPA over sharing of Lok Sabha seats, he said. Mulayam,Lalu and Paswan are opportunists and have joined hands only to ensure better bargaining strength after the polls. The constituent parties of the Third Front have decided to come on a platform with a clearly defined agenda where the prime minister will be elected by consensus after the polls, Mishra added.
