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Yechury favours Third Front, Sukhbir says no
Varinder Singh/TNS

Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal and CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury at Bandala village in Jalandhar district on Sunday. Tribune photo: Malkiat Singh

Bandala (Jalandhar), Sept 23
A day after his meeting with Mulayam Singh Yadav created a buzz about the Third Front revival, Punjab Deputy CM and SAD chief Sukhbir Singh Badal on Sunday came face-to-face with another champion of such a formation, CPM’s Sitaram Yechury. While Yechury went at length dwelling on the importance of a non-BJP, non-Congress alternative, Badal Jr firmly rejected it, saying: “There is no chance of a Third Front.”

Yechury and Badal came together to pay tributes to CPM’s Harkishan Singh Surjeet at the late communist leader’s native village, Bandala.

Yechuri said survival of the “scam-ridden” UPA government was dependent on the mercy of the Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP).

“The Third Front is a very practical idea, but only when it is successful in coming out with alternative policies aimed at keeping people away from the clasp of capitalists. There will be no benefit of any formation if it continued with old “anti-people” policies pursued by the UPA or the BJP,” he said.

“With the go-ahead to the FDI in retail, four crore persons involved in small retail businesses and 20 crore members of their families will be directly affected,” he added.

Asked if he could name the possible constituents of the proposed Third Front, Yechury said he could not name the parties as he was not sure who would come and who would not. “Non-Congress and non-BJP parties will have to come together and think about the future of the country. There are many important parties outside the NDA, like the Samajwadi Party, the Janata Dal (Secular), the Janata Dal (Biju) etc,” Yechury said.

SAD chief Sukhbir Singh Badal denied that he had any discussion on the Third Front issue with Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav in New Delhi yesterday.

“There is no chance of any Third Front. Nothing political should be read out of my meeting with Mulayam Singh Yadav. My family has old ties with Yadav and the Chautala family. We meet on social occasions, but it does not mean that we are forging any alliance or a front,” Sukhbir said.

He went a step further and said there was no question of forging any alternative front in the present political scenario. The NDA would form the next government at the Centre, he predicted. “People of this country have already made up their mind to kick out the “most corrupt government” and bring the NDA back to power,” he said.