New Delhi, August 31
Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav’s attempts to forge a Third Front around the ongoing coal blocks allocation controversy failed today with the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) and the AIADMK refusing to support his strategy.

Neither of the two Opposition parties joined the sit-in the SP, Left front and TDP MPs held in front of Parliament gate this morning, reiterating their demand for a judicial probe into the scam and cancellation of all 142 coal blocks UPA had allocated on nomination from 2004.

The BJD outrightly rejected the SP-Left-TDP line for a judicial inquiry saying this demand was a ploy to deflate a serious issue. The party also clarified that it was against en bloc cancellation of all the 142 coal blocks allocated since 2004.

Of these 142 blocks, 18 are the ones which the Orissa Government had recommended for allocation. Accordingly, the BJD today “refused” Mulayam Singh’s advances after he yesterday wrote a letter to party MPs asking them to join today’s dharna.

CPM leader Basudeb Acharia and TDP’s Nama Nageshwar Rao personally contacted BJD leader in Lok Sabha Bhartruhari Mahtab today to explore the possibility of the latter supporting the "non-Congress, non-BJP Third Front" strategy on coal scam, but they failed.

Speaking to The Tribune today, Bhartruhari Mahtab trashed the talk of a Third Front and said the Naveen Patnaik-led BJD believed the voters would forge a “federal front” post-2014 elections.

New Delhi, August 31
The BJP today took a dim view of the demonstration by Samajwadi Party leader Mulayam Singh Yadav and some other parties in support of their demand for a fair probe and debate in Parliament on the CAG report on coal block allocations, describing those who participated in the ‘dharna’ as the ‘B Team’ of the UPA government.

The main Opposition party strongly condemned the criticism of the CAG by Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh, accusing the ruling coalition of making a mockery of constitutional institutions.

Talking to the media here, senior BJP leader Shahanawaz Hussain said the nation would like to know why the Samajwadi Party was behaving like an Opposition party even as it continued to support the UPA government from outside. “Instead of staging a ‘dharna’ at Parliament, they (Samajwadi Party) should go to the President and withdraw their support to the government,’’ he added.

Hussain said the SP wanted to enjoy the privileges of power on the one hand but at the same time desired to capture the Opposition space.

On the Left parties joining the ‘dharna’, he recalled they had supported the UPA-1 regime for more than four years before withdrawing support over the civil nuclear deal with the US. The Left parties were in a bad shape precisely because of supporting the Congress from time to time, he added.

On Digvijay Singh’s remark that the current CAG had political ambitions and would eventually join the BJP, Hussain said he found nothing surprising in the Congress general secretary’s comments. “When the PM can attack the CAG, his ministers can attack the CAG then why those leaders who are wandering on the roads should not do so?’’ he asked.

He held the UPA government responsible for not allowing Parliament to function. “Let then accept our demand for the cancellation of all coal blocks to allow the two Houses to function.’’ The senior BJP leader indicated that the stalemate in Parliament could continue next week also. The BJP, he said, had already started its ‘‘sansad se sadak tak aandolan (from Parliament to the streets agitation)’’ to expose the government over the coal block allocations.