Mayawati to host dinner for Front constituents

Bangalore, Mar 13 (PTI) With the Bahujan Samaj Party
(BSP) keen to project her as the newly-formed Third Front's
prime ministerial candidate, party supremo Mayawati has
invited leaders of the front's constituents to a dinner
meeting on March 15 in New Delhi.

Mayawati has made it clear that she would join the Third
Front only if she was projected as its prime ministerial
candidate.

Her representative at the Front's launching rally
Thursday at Tumkur near here and party general secretary
Satish Chandra Mishra, has said "It is the aim of the BSP to
make Mayawati prime minister."

Given this backdrop, the March 15 meeting assumes
significance as the leadership issue will almost certainly be
discussed although the Third Front has so far taken the line
that the prime ministerial question would be addressed only
after the Lok Sabha elections are over and results declared.

Sources in the Janata Dal (Secular), however, said the
dinner meeting could discuss the modalities of the proposed
'National Policy Document' of the Front.

Former Prime Minister and JD (S) chief H D Deve Gowda had
said during the rally Thursday that the Front will come out
with the document for the Lok Sabha polls.

Despite the presence of Mishra at the rally, the BSP is
yet to declare unequivocally whether it is a part of the Third
Front or not.

The new grouping is also trying to woo Orissa strongman
Naveen Patnaik, chief of the BJD.

While Biju Janata Dal (BJD) has indicated that it would
go in for seat sharing with some of the Front constituents,
especially the two left parties -- Communist Party of India
(CPI) and CPI(M), it has, however, refused to join any
alliance before the Lok Sabha elections.

"The BJD will not participate in any Front now," party MP
Pyari Mohan Mohapatra, considered the main strategist of
Patnaik, told reporters Thursday.

As soon as BJD snapped its ties with the BJP, CPI(M)
leader Sitaram Yechury rushed to Orissa and asked Patnaik to
join the Third Front.

Patnaik, who agreed on seat-sharing with Left parties,
Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Jharkhand Mukti Morcha
(JMM), reportedly told Yechury that the regional party would
take the decision regarding its participation in the Third
Front only after the elections.

No BJD representative was present at the Front rally. PTI
Team
DEP
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