Agencies

New Delhi, Mar 13: On March 15, Mayawati’s dinner table will serve as a battleground for deciding who will be the prime ministerial candidate of the newly-formed Third Front. With a very small list to choose from, chances are, it will turn out to be a happy dinner.

A day after the grand launch of the Third Front, BSP President on Friday conveyed her prime ministerial ambitions to the Third Front.

According to sources, Mayawati wants the Third Front to finalise the PM candidate by March 15, which also marks BSP's founder Kanshi Ram's birthday when the Uttar Pradesh chief minister is likely to hold a dinner for the Third Front.

Mayawati has made it clear that she would join the Third Front only if she was projected as its prime ministerial candidate.

Her representative at the Front's launching rally yesterday at Tumkur near here and party general secretary Satish Chandra Mishra, has said "It is the aim of the BSP to make Mayawati prime minister."

Given this backdrop, the March 15 meeting assumes significance as the leadership issue will almost certainly be discussed although the Third Front has so far taken the line that the prime ministerial question would be addressed only after the Lok Sabha elections are over and results declared.

Sources in the JD(S), however, said the dinner meeting could discuss the modalities of the proposed 'National Policy Document' of the Front.

Former prime minister and JD (S) chief H D Deve Gowda had said during the rally on Thursday that the Front will come out with the document for the Lok Sabha polls.

Earlier on Thursday, the BSP chief Mayawati, who had been blowing hot and cold so far, suddenly agreed to send her second-in-command and BSP Member of Parliament, Satish Mishra, to the launch rally.