INLD, BSP join hands for Assembly and LS polls

The Indian National Lok Dal and Bahujan Samaj Party announced an electoral alliance on Wednesday for the Lok Sabha and Assembly polls due next year.

INLD leader Abhay Singh Chautala and BSP leader Meghraj Singh, at a joint press conference, said they are laying the foundation of a “third front” in the country to prevent the BJP and Congress from winning.

“We have agreed upon the broad contours and decided to project Ms. Mayawati, the BSP supremo, as the Prime Ministerial candidate. Both parties agreed that the country needed to be rid of both the BJP and the Congress,” said Mr. Chautala.

He alleged that while the Congress has been responsible for spreading massive corruption in the country, the BJP has drifted the nation towards inter-community and inter-religious conflicts and polarised the society. “It was imperative that all those forces representing the downtrodden, suppressed, farming and the labouring classes join hands to oust and keep them away from power. Hence, we have come together,” said Mr. Chautala.

“The foundation has been laid for a third front in the country,” he added.

Mr. Singh said that the two parties would give a credible alternative to the nation and keep the BJP and Congress out of power in Haryana as well as at the Centre.

The issue of the formula to share seats for the Lok Sabha and Assembly has been left open for the moment. Both parties will settle it when needed in a spirit of mutual accommodation, said Mr. Singh. “BSP will lend its wholehearted support to the ‘Jail Bharo’ agitation of the INLD that is slated to begin on May 1,” he added.

The INLD has threatened to launch an agitation on May 1 if the Haryana government failed to start construction of the SYL canal by then.