SP has to play decisive role in next LS polls: Mulayam tells partymen

Addressing the national executive meeting of his party here on Wednesday, Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav asked his partymen to work in such a way that the SP plays a decisive role in forming the next government at the Centre.

"The 2014 elections is going to be a decisive one and you should try hard so that we win a good number of seats. We would have to spread our influence from Bengal to Punjab and Nandaji (Kiranmoy Nanda, party general secretary) has assured me that we would be able to open our account in West Bengal. We should see to it that no government at the Centre is formed without the SP's support,'' he said.

The SP currently has 22 seats in the Lok Sabha, and is thus the third largest party in the House, and nine seats in the Rajya Sabha.

The party leadership aims for at least 60 seats in the next Lok Sabha elections. The political resolution the party said that the Lok Sabha elections could be held anytime as the UPA government was tainted with scams.

Party vice-president Mohan Singh said the SP has sown the seeds of understanding between regional parties. However,

speaking to The Indian Express, party general secretary Ram Gopal Yadav said that all talks about a Third Front will take place only after the election.

Asked whether the party was talking to the Trinamool Congress, he said, "We are in touch with all the parties... we are speaking to the TMC everyday... but all talks of a Third Front will come up only after elections,'' Yadav said.

That the party was still not ready to sever its ties with the Left was evident in Mohan Singh's words when he said that the SP was not keen on keeping away from the Left as its leaders had stood by the SP in its difficult times.

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