‘PM’s chair is not in Advani’s kundli’

A new alliance took shape in Lucknow on Friday with Mulayam Singh, Lalu Prasad Yadav and Ram Vilas Paswan joining hands “to defeat communal forces”. The leaders stressed that they were very much a part of the Congress-led UPA and Manmohan Singh was their prime ministerial candidate.

“This is no fourth or fifth front... we are a part and parcel of the UPA,” Lalu said. He said the new alliance had nothing to do with the Third Front, though the Left parties have been “natural allies”.

Mulayam and Lalu pointed out that this alliance was not for the Lok Sabha elections alone, but would continue in the next assembly polls, too. “We have lost a lot by staying away from each other,” Lalu said.

The new alliance has identified Mayawati as a common enemy apart from the BJP. “We have had good relations with the Left. But now they are drinking the poison of Mayawati... we are upset over this,” Lalu said.

He mocked at the BJP’s PM-in-waiting, saying: “I have studied LK Advani’s kundli very closely. There is no chance of his becoming PM.

“Atrocities and arrogance have increased under the Mayawati regime,” he said and went on to allege that Mayawati was hand in glove with the BJP. “Mayawati and BJP are behind what Varun Gandhi has done... if I were the home minister, I would have taught him a lesson,” Lalu said.

Paswan said the alliance would have the key to government formation after the election as UP, Bihar and Jharkhand accounted for as many as 134 seats. He also targeted Mayawati, dubbing the BSP as “the ‘B’ team of the BJP”. He said that Mayawati’s talk about Dalit welfare was just eyewash.