The Third Front on Thursday joined the Bharatiya Janata Party demand for a vote in the Lok Sabha on the Indo-US nuclear deal alleging the government has "surrendered" before the United States.
After a meeting of the Third Front, popularly known as United Nnational Progressive Alliance, Telugu Desam Party chief Chandrababu Naidu said voting after a debate on the deal was necessary to show "who stood where", while Indian National Lok Dal supremo Om Prakash Chautala remarked that the Left would be "exposed" in such a scenario.
Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh alleged the government has "surrendered" before the US and claimed UNPA will expose, both inside and outside Parliament, how the Manmohan Singh administration has "mortgaged" India's sovereignty.
Almost all leaders of the UNPA, barring All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam supremo J Jayalalithaa, met in Delhi and also resolved to vote for their vice presidential candidate Rashid Masood, in contrast to their divided stand on whom to support in recent presidential elections.
"We have fielded a candidate. It is a collective decision. Presidential election is a closed chapter. Think about the future," AIADMK leader V Maitreyan said when asked whether there would be an encore of the presidential fiasco.