Federal front has ceased to exist as a idea: BJP

Ridiculing Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee's proposal for a Federal Front, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Saturday said the Janata Dal-United (JD-U) has already ditched her just like the Samajwadi Party did in the past.

"The JD-U leaders posed for photos with Didi (Banerjee) for setting up the Federal Front together. But soon enough, they joined hands with the Congress and took benefits from it," BJP national spokespersons Shahnawaz Hussain told media persons on the sidelines of an event here.

After Banerjee last month urged all non-Congress, non-BJP political parties to unite and form a federal front ahead of next year's Lok Sabha polls, the JD-U leadership welcomed the initiative and its senior leader K.C. Tyagi met Banerjee at the state secretariat here.

Hussain said the "federal front" ceased to exist as a idea the day the Congress supported Nitish Kumar-led JD-U government in the the Bihar assembly when it sought a trust vote after breaking ties with his party.

"The JD-U is now an ally of Congress," he alleged.

Last year, Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav extended support for the candidature of Pranab Mukherjee for the president's post, a day after announcing at a joint media meet with Banerjee that his party would oppose him.