Amar Singh declares name of Lok Sabha candidate from Bharuch

Amar Singh declared the name of the candidate from Bharuch,Kanak Singh Mangrol,adding that the SP will fight seven seats in Gujarat in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections.

Asked about the post-poll alliance with the Congress,Singh said there could still be a post-poll alliance with that party despite the absence of a pre-poll tie-up.

“We are a secular party and the Congress will need our support in its efforts to form the government at the Centre,” he said.

He termed the Third Front — a grouping of the Left and regional parties – as an “opportunistic alliance”. “For them (the Third Front),the guiding principle is not secularism,but only opportunism,” Singh said.

He also lashed out at Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati for her earlier alliance with the BJP.

He said: “Dono ke beechme nikah hui hai lekin abhi tak talaq nahi hua hai. Agar talaq hua hai to bolna chahiye talaq,talaq,talaq (The marriage between the BJP and the BSP has not yet ended in a divorce).”

He added: “Mayawati had three times formed the government in Uttar Pradesh with the support of the BJP. How can she become secular by joining the Third Front? She has campaigned for Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi.”

Takes swipes at Advani,Mayawati

Amar Singh told the media in Bharuch on Friday that the post-Godhra riot is still an issue for the party,which it will raise during campaigning. He,however,added: “We will not use it the way Chief Minister Narendra Modi used it to come to power.”

Before going to Bharuch,Singh also spoke to the media in Vadodara where he commented on Varun Gandhi’s hate speech in Pilbhit in UP. “He is a small boy and is in a hurry to become a Hindutva poster-boy like Modi,” he said. He also took swipes at BJP Prime Ministerial candidate L K Advani and UP Chief Minister Mayawati.