The Samajwadi Party’s efforts to forge a non-Congress, non-BJP Third Front has got a fillip with the release of the schedule of the nascent committee against the UPA Government’s foreign policy. The panel, which was formed last fortnight with the support of Left parties like the CPI(M), has boosted the fortunes of the SP, which has been isolated ever since the Congress-led, Left-backed UPA came to power last year.According to SP sources, the panel, which will highlight the UPA’s compromise vote on the Iran issue in the UN, will hold four mass rallies, beginning November 13, in Lucknow, Kolkata, and significantly, in Hyderabad and Mumbai. The meetings will be jointly addressed by the all-powerful CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat, Rajya Sabha MP, Sitaram Yechury, and SP leaders, including Rajya Sabha MP, Amar Singh, and Lok Sabha MP, Ram Gopal Yadav.Sources say the Hyderabad and Mumbai venues are critical in the SP’s scheme for a Third Front initiative—the SP-CPI(M) tirade will take on the Congress in the two states it rules—Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra, where it runs a coalition government with ally Sharad Pawar’s NCP. While Pawar is a potential Third Front ally—after all, he had left the Congress protesting against Sonia Gandhi’s ‘‘foreign origins’’—the SP has been working overtime to bring the Telugu Desam and its leader Chandrababu Naidu, back into the fold.‘Governor Sonia stooge’NEW DELHI: Samajwadi Party general secretary Amar Singh today lashed out at UP Governor, T V Rajeshwar Rao, accusing him of becoming a stooge of Congress chief Sonia Gandhi. Singh accused Rao of ‘‘interfering in the affairs of the state at the behest of Gandhi.’’ Singh said, ‘‘The Governor is not acting as a ‘rajyapal’ but as a ‘dwarpal’ (doorkeeper) for ‘Desh ki Rani’ (the country’s queen) Sonia Gandhi.’’
