Third Front a mirage: Congress

Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari says UPA govt at the Centre 'absolutely stable'

Terming the emergence of a Third Front as "the most enduring mirage of Indian politics", Congress today said the UPA government at the Centre is "absolutely stable."

"In politics you always have different experiments which keep unfolding at different points in time. But if you look at the history of the past 20 years, the history of coalition politics in India, the reality is that a Third front or a Fourth Front or a Fifth Front has been the most enduring mirage of Indian politics," Union Minister and Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari said.

"A couple of days ago, while addressing media, the Finance Minister, the Parliamentary Affairs Minister and I had underscored that the government is absolutely stable," Tewari said.

He said in the past few days, except for speculation in the media, nobody had raised any question on the stability of the government.

"So, therefore, this is a complete non sequitur, so far as the Third Front or the Fourth Front or the Fifth Front is concerned," Tewari said.

Tewari's comments come close on the heels of Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav saying yesterday that the era of one-party rule was over and the future belongs to coalition governments.

Finance Minister P Chidambaram had earlier said that despite the DMK's exit, Congress-led UPA government is stable and enjoys majority support in Parliament.