Warning the UPA that it should not take his party’s support as a given, Samajwadi leader Mulayam Singh Yadav said that supporters like CPI(M) leader Prakash Karat had asked him to lead the Third Front, which was sure to come to power whenever elections were held. The Samajwadi Party supremo was extra careful in answering a direct question on his political ambitions. Asked about his chances of becoming Prime Minister, he said it is “no ordinary event”, and that he had not yet given thought to it. Mulayam did say, however, that he “respected” the feelings of party workers and even journalists who fancy him as the next Prime Minister.
Asked if his opposition to the FDI and diesel decisions was incongruous with his continued support to the tottering UPA, Mulayam said “now was not the time to pull down the government”.
Mulayam said his party MPs would support a possible Trinamool resolution in Parliament against the UPA’s latest economic reform measures, adding that the SP itself could itself be the mover of such a resolution. He said the SP’s steadfast opposition to the FDI and diesel decisions was enough indication to the Prime Minister that he should roll them back before matters come to a head in the Lok Sabha.
-Sunday Standard