Aam Aadmi Party denies report of backing Third Front
Gopal Rai had earlier said that AAP may extend support to 3rd Front government
Varanasi: Aam Aadmi Party convener and the main opponent of Narendra Modi for the Varanasi LS seat Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday dismissed any chances of backing Third Front to stop the BJP from coming to power.
Earlier during the day senior AAP leader Gopal Rai said that they may extend issue based support to a Third Front government if such an initiative was launched based on election results which will be out on May 16.
“Yes, we may extend issue based support if there is a situation that demands our support to a Third Front government,” Rai said.
The talk of possible cobbling together of “secular forces” to stop BJP from coming to power had gained momentum in the last couple of weeks with SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav and a number of other leaders exuding confidence of such a formation, expecting that Congress won’t be able to form UPA-III.
Mr Rai, considered close to Mr Kejriwal, however, said a decision on future role of the party will be taken after analysing the outcome of the election.
“Our movement is for common people and support will be definitely issue-based. Final decision on future course of action will be taken after May 16 when results will be declared,” he said.
The AAP has fielded candidates in 422 Lok Sabha seats and Mr Kejriwal had earlier claimed that his party will win at least 100 seats. Mr Rai, however, refused to hazard a guess about number of seats the AAP would bag, saying the party’s struggle will go on even if it does not perform well.
A number of senior party leaders had said that they will repeat the “surprise” of Delhi Asse-mbly polls in the LS polls as well.