Cong woos SP, BSP; PM invites allies for dinner

New Delhi: Amidst talks of several parties trying to constitute the Third Front and the possibility of mid-term elections, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has invited all the allies to attend a dinner on Tuesday evening.

This came hours after the Prime Minister, ahead of the Budget Session, told mediapersons that he was confident of having all the numbers that the UPA needed.

He also said that the UPA would handle all the pressure from the Opposition as well as the allies coming its way.

Meanwhile, the Congress also made an attempt to reach out to the Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) for support needed for the passage of several key bills in Parliament.

According to sources, an all-party meeting is likely to be called soon on the matter of the pending bills such as Lokpal and Higher Education.

The Trinamool Congress, however, has made it clear that the party is not going to rock the Congress-led UPA.

Though Trinamool leaders indicated that there were some issues on which the party was not on the same plane with the Congress, but added that there was no question mark over the stability of the Central Government.

There are voices in the Opposition as well that dismiss the formation of the Third Front and the possibility of mid-term elections.

Bihar Chief Minister and senior JD-U leader Nitish Kumar has said that the Third Front has no concrete framework.

He said, "JD-U is a part of the NDA. The Third Front is being talked about but there is no concrete framework of it. I do not think that the Congress has weakened and the government in Centre will ensure that there are no mid-term polls. They will ensure that they have the required number in Centre."

Meanwhile, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad Yadav termed the formation of a Third Front as impossible.

Lalu said, "The Third Front is impossible. There are practical difficulties in the formation of Third Front."

However, it seems that the Budget Session is going to be a tough one. The Opposition as well as allies repeatedly disrupted the Presidential speech on Monday.

The Opposition has also made it clear that it'll corner the government on all fronts. Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Arun Jaitley has said he will raise the issue of passage of Lokpal Bill in the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday.

As of now, the UPA has 274 seats in the Lok Sabha with the Congress having 204. The allies with the maximum numbers are Trinamool Congress (19) and DMK (18). The other allies are NCP (9), RLD (5) and National Conference (3). Others add 16 seats to the list.

The UPA also has 50 seats in the form of outside support with parties like BSP (21), SP (22), RJD (4) and JD-S (3).

Meanwhile, the NDA’s number lies at 151 while that of Left and others at 65.