Mulayam meets Sukhbir Badal, fuels talks of Third Front

A day after pledging support to the United Progressive Alliance, Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav on Saturday met Shiromani Akali Dal leader and Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal.

Refusing to divulge details about the meeting in new Delhi, Yadav said his association with the Badals was old as Prakash Singh Badal was a close associate of Chaudhury Charan Singh.

Asked whether the meeting was part of his efforts to form a Third Front, Yadav said there were "no efforts" to form such an alliance.

In reply to a poser on whether he plans to bring a resolution in Parliament against the Foreign Direct Investment in multi-brand retail, he said, "There is no proposal so far".

He said the Trinamool Congress actually had plan to move such a resolution. "We are protesting against FDI (in retail). She is protesting in her own way," he said.

The Samajwadi Party will decide its Parliamentary strategy against FDI and other latest government decisions only ahead of the winter session of Parliament, he said.

On Saturday, when Trinamool Congress pulled out of the UPA, Samajwadi Party had pledged to continue support to the government saying it "does not want to let communal forces to come to power".

"Our support is clear. We will not let communal forces come to power. That is why I am supporting. I am not in UPA. But we are supporting so that communal forces do not go ahead," Yadav had said.

Image: Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav