Fourth front will decide who will be next PM

PURNEA: After a show of strength in Etawah, UP, the fourth front bandwagon on Friday rolled into Bihar where SP’s Mulayam Singh Yadav, RJD’s Lalu Prasad, and LJP’s Ram Vilas Paswan claimed before a large crowd that they would be the ones to decide who will be India’s next prime minister.

Mulayam went a step further and declared that the troika will realize Ram Manohar Lohia’s and Jayaprakash Narayan’s dream of ushering in a socialist regime at Centre. Addressing a huge election rally at Rangbhumi Maidan in Purnea, Mulayam expressed happiness that differences between Lalu and Paswan had ended. ‘‘Now all of us have come together,’’ he said.

Lalu also said that they — the Fourth Front — will have absolutely no truck with the Third Front, and surprised one and all by backtracking on his remarks on Varun Gandhi that landed him in trouble. While he had earlier said that had he been the home minister, he would have driven a roller over Varun’s chest, on Friday, perhaps rattled by the EC’s reaction to his diatribe, Lalu said he had meant to drive a ‘‘legal bulldozer’’. ‘‘There’s an attempt to throw me behind bars but I am prepared to for that. After all swaraj was achieved when people went to jail,’’ the railway minister said.

Lalu said their alliance, which is contesting 134 LS seats in UP, Bihar, and Jharkhand, would rule the political firmament across the Hindi belt and crush ‘‘communal’’ elements.

Bollywood star Sanjay Dutt, cheered lustily everytime he came up on the dais, made a brief speech. He said he would still love to do Gandhigiri. Dutt, who has been denied permission to contest eletions by the SC, was speaking in his capacity as SP’s general secretary.