Will unite Opposition to make Mayawati PM, says former Haryana CM Om Prakash Chautala

Former Haryana chief minister Om Prakash Chautala on Sunday vowed to help form a third front ahead of the 2019 national polls to make Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati the next prime minister.

“...I will make efforts for the formation of the third front at the Centre so that the daughter (Mayawati) of a poor man could become the prime minister,” Chautala said in his first public appearance after four years.

Chautala is on a two-week parole from Delhi’s Tihar jail, where he is serving a 10-year sentence over a teachers’ recruitment scam.

He urged his Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) workers to strengthen the party organisation to ensure its win in the next elections and ended speculation about parting ways with the BSP.

Chautala said the INLD-BSP alliance was strong and it was formed to make Mayawati the next prime minister.

Chautala lashed out at the Congress and accused the party’s leaders of conspiring to send him to jail.

“When I went to jail, Congress leaders thought the INLD will perish, but I thank all the party workers for working hard to keep the party alive,” he said while addressing an INLD rally here to mark the 105th birth anniversary of his father and former deputy prime minister, Devi Lal.

He asked young workers to maintain discipline and work on the ground to strengthen the party before the elections.

BSP’s Haryana in-charge Meghraj Singh read out Mayawati’s message at the rally and said the INLD-BSP alliance is intact and was going to stay.

“Mayawati has stated that our alliance is strong even as BJP and Congress are making misleading statements about its future as they are worried over the popularity of the alliance,” he said.

First Published: Oct 07, 2018 23:23 IST