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Third front formation likely after U.P. polls

Special Correspondent

LUCKNOW: A broader alliance, comprising the Samajwadi Party, the All-India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK), the Telugu Desam Party (TDP), the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) and the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD), is likely to take shape after the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections.

AIADMK leader Jayalalithaa, TDP chief N. Chandrababu Naidu and INLD president Om Prakash Chautala have campaigned for the Mulayam Singh-led ruling Samajwadi Party.

S. Bangarappa, MP of the Samajwadi Party, is the fourth former Chief Minister to explore the possibility of forming an alternative to the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party at the national level.

The former External Affairs Minister K. Natwar Singh on Wednesday said leaders, including Mr. Mulayam Singh, were scheduled to meet at Tirupati immediately after the elections. The meeting was being held at the initiative of Mr. Naidu, who did not want the efforts limited to the Uttar Pradesh elections. The next meeting would be held in Chennai.

Mr. Natwar Singh, who was suspended from the Congress, campaigned for the SP and shared the dais with these leaders at the Bareilly and Allahabad meetings. He told reporters that he wanted a similar experiment tried in his home State Rajasthan, where Assembly elections are due in 2008. The people there were keen on a "third alternative" at the helm of affairs.

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