Mulayam support crucial for Pawar

Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar, who will share the dais with the Third Front in Orissa on Friday, has sent a strong signal out that he could join a non-Congress, non-Bharatiya Janata Party government.

His aspirations for becoming prime minister became more evident though he has been letting party leaders and others like Samajwadi Party's Amar Singh to do the talking for him.

SP president Mulayam Singh Yadav has supported Pawar's bid for prime ministership.
"I have myself told Pawar that he should become PM," Mulayam told a television channel in Lucknow on Thursday. "I have been on good terms with (Pawar)... I had spoken to him on the telephone and Amar Singh had a meeting with him," he said.

Mulayam's support is crucial because of his recent alliance with Rashtriya Janata Dal president Lalu Prasad and Lok Janshakti Party chief Ram Vilas Paswan. The three account for 61 seats in the outgoing Lok Sabha. Even if they manage 40 to 50 seats between them, this front could play kingmaker after the elections.

The three party chiefs are meeting in Lucknow on Friday, and Pawar's bid for prime ministership is likely to be on the agenda. As the polls draw closer, Pawar seems to have decided it's time to gamble with action. He knows his presence at a Third Front gathering is a red rag to the Congress. But with the seat-sharing pact in Maharashtra sealed on his terms, he can afford to risk upsetting his partner in western India (Congress and NCP also have an alliance in Goa and Gujarat).

Congress spokesperson Jayanthi Natarajan advised the NCP chief to 'introspect' on whether he's doing the right thing. NCP spokesperson DP Tripathi hit back that the Congress should have introspected before it wound up the UPA in January with an announcement that there would be no national alliance for the 2009 polls. "How did the Congress think it could dump its allies after sitting in government together for five years," he asked.

Pawar's presence in Bhubaneswar is a morale booster for the Third Front. A Left leader saw it as an acceptance of the political grouping's growing strength. But he was unwilling to commit whether the Left would back Pawar for PM. "It's not numbers that matter. It's acceptability. Whoever becomes our PM candidate will have to be acceptable to all parties in the Third Front. A decision will be taken only after the results," he said.

Despite question marks, the emerging scenario presents Pawar with his best chance to realise his ambition.
—With inputs from Deepak Gidwani in Lucknow