Lucknow, Nov. 22: Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav resurrected the proposal for the formation of a third front on his 65 th birthday by inviting constituents of the National Democratic Alliance to desert the BJP and join him.

?There is a vacuum in the politics of the country. We have to fill in that gap. I invite all the constituents of the NDA to be ready for a new political formulation,? the Uttar Pradesh chief minister said on the concluding day of the two-day executive body meeting of his party in Jhansi where he was garlanded and sweets were distributed.

?The country is tired of the national parties and now there is a need for an alternative formulation comprising the secular forces unattached to either of the two parties ? the Congress or the BJP ? or willing to desert them,? Mulayam Singh said.

The Samajwadi leader said that, after the NDA lost the Lok Sabha elections in May, there was hope of a progressive alliance under the leadership of the Congress but the United Progressive Alliance at the Centre has not been able to take any strong initiative.

Mulayam Singh said he felt pity for the ?steady demise? of the BJP, but was sarcastic and acerbic in his criticism of the Congress.

The Samajwadi leader also called upon the Left parties to support the initiative. In a competitive political atmosphere, no party can afford to wait for five years of a government?s term, he said.