Third front candidate will be next Prime Minister: Mulayam Singh

New Delhi: Samajwadi Pary chief Mulayam Singh Yadav today said a third front will come into power after the elections next year, as neither the Congress nor the BJP would win enough seats to form a government.

"The third front's candidate will be the next Prime Minister of the country," Mr Yadav said today, speaking to the media, once again raising the possibility of a third front, a grouping of non-Congress and non-BJP parties that been seen as a failed experiment even by its own leaders.

 Mr Yadav said he was working with CPI-M leader Prakash Karat to put together a third front, but said it was not possible before the elections due by May.

"The third front formation is not possible now, as differences can crop up among parties on ticket distribution and seat sharing," admitted the Samajwadi Party chief, who had met Mr Karat recently.

All political parties of the proposed alliance would contest polls on their own strength, he said, and then get together after the election.

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Mulayam Singh said he had been invited to a meeting on October 30 to discuss a joint fight against 'communal forces', but refused to reveal names of other parties who would participate.

The BJP dismissed Mulayam Singh's comments as old hat.

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"These third and fourth front talks are like expired poll chocolates, it is raised every time during elections," said BJP's Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi. He added that these fronts 'are full of Prime Ministerial candidates."

The Samajwadi Party, which rules India's largest state Uttar Pradesh, props up the minority Manmohan Singh government.