Kanpur: Union Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal on Saturday dismissed suggestions that Samajwadi Party chief Mulayan Singh Yadav has joined hands with the Opposition on coal block allocation issue by holding a protest and claimed the action was aimed at ensuring normal functioning of Parliament.
"Yadav has supported our Government and we express our gratitude to him...Whatever he has demanded is with the aim that Parliament should run, whose proceedings have been halted by the BJP. That is his purpose and we are hopeful that he will be successful," Jaiswal told reporters after flagging off a new superfast Kanpur-Allahabad Intercity Express train in Kanpur.
UPA's outside supporter SP along with the Left parties and TDP had on Friday staged a dharna at the main entrance of the Parliament building, demanding a judicial probe into coal blocks allocation and cancellation of licenses failing which they threatened to launch a countrywide agitation. Jaiswal also sought to trash the allegations about his relatives being allotted coal blocks.
"I don't understand how the names of my relatives are cropping up when not even a single coal block has been allocated in my tenure...I don't know if any Jaiswal was allotted a coal block earlier. As far as Jaiswal surname is concerned, everybody from the community in the country are our relatives," the coal minister said.
Asked whether he foresees emergence of a Third Front after the dharna staged by Yadav, Jaiswal said, "Attempts to form a Third Front have been made at least a dozen times in past. We do not feel that any such front is in the offing even this time."
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