Lalu: Advani’s stars are bad

Lucknow

April 9: Three leaders of the Fourth Front on Thursday kicked off their campaign from Etawah with a blistering attack on the BJP and BSP. Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav of the Samajwadi Party, Mr Lalu Prasad Yadav of the Rashtriya Janata Dal and Mr Ram Vilas Paswan of the Lok Janshakti Party vowed to take their political alliance further and said they would now stick together through the thick and thin of politics.
Addressing the rally, Mr Lalu Yadav said, “L.K. Advani is not destined to become Prime Minister because his horoscope says so. The three of us will wipe out the NDA.” He said the three leaders would now win the majority of the seats in UP (80), Bihar (40) and Jharkhand (14) and that these 134 seats would decided the complexion of the next government at the Centre. “Now there can be no government at the Centre without us,” he added.
The RJD president explained that the Congress had refused to ally with the RJD and LJP in Bihar and the SP in UP because it wanted to strengthen its own organisation. “The Congress wants to strengthen its party and not win elections in Bihar and UP,” he stated.
Mr Lalu Yadav also praised Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav for supporting the UPA in its hour of need and not allowing the NDA to score a victory. Addressing the rally, SP president Mulayam Singh said no government would be possible at the Centre without the consent of the three-party alliance. “The three brothers have joined hands not only to win elections but also to fight communal forces,” he said. LJP president Ram Vilas Paswan, on the other hand, attacked UP chief minister Mayawati, accusing her of claiming to be a friend of dalits but not doing anything for them. He also ridiculed the BSP’s efforts to bring brahmins and other upper castes on board and stated that this was a complete dilution of Ambedkar’s ideology.