AIADMK skips Maya's mega Third Front dinner

New Delhi: As she hosted a dinner for the Third Front leaders in the Capital, BSP chief Mayawati on Sunday night said leaders of all the parties present had resolved to present before the electorate a non-Congress and non-BJP "secular" alternative which will strive to form the next government.

"We senior leaders (of the Third Front) have resolved that we will collectively present a non-Congress, non-BJP secular alternative before the nation," she said reading out a brief statement before the media even as the dinner attended by leaders of nine regional political parties was underway at her residence.

This alternative, the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister claimed, would "form the next government" at the Centre.

Mayawati said the policies of a government formed by this third alternative would be "completely in the interest of the country and the people".

She said that at the dinner, the leaders discussed current political situation and the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.

The dinner was attended by CPI-M leaders Prakash Karat and Sitaram Yechury, CPI's AB Bardhan and D Raja, RSP leaders TJ Chandrachoodan and Abani Roy, Forward Bloc's D Biswas, JD(S) leader H D Deve Gowda, TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu, TRS leader K Chandrasekhar Rao.

AIADMK absent at Mayawati's dinner

AIADMK skipped the dinner hosted by BSP chief Mayawati to formulate a common strategy for the Third Front for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.

It was not immediately known why the Jayalalithaa-led party did not attend the dinner for which Mayawati had invited leaders of all the Third Front parties who attended the Tumkur rally on Thursday.

Significantly, AIADMK leader V Maitreyan attended a meeting of Third Front parties without BSP earlier on Sunday.

Asked why no representative of AIADMK was present at the dinner, Maitreyan told PTI that he had instructions from the party chief only to attend the meeting of Third Front leaders, held at the CPI(M) headquarters just three hours before Mayawati's dinner.

Before going for the dinner, the 10-party front leaders issued a joint statement resolving to work together to defeat the Congress and BJP in the General Elections.