India News Online » News Analysis » Indian Politics » 

Moves towards Third Front gain momentum

	June 26, 2006

Protagonists of the proposed Third Front are

hopeful that differences between the CPI(M)

and the CPI would not be an impediment in

forming a non-BJP, non-Congress alternative at the

national level. The differences between the two

Communist parties relate to the local politics of Uttar

Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh. In Uttar Pradesh, the

CPI(M) has aligned itself with the Samajwadi Party,



while the CPI is in favour of the V.P. Singh-led Jan

Morcha against Samajwadi party leader and Chief

Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav. In Andhra Pradesh,

while the CPI(M) has joined with the Telugu Desam

Party for local bodies elections, the CPI is a part of

the alliance led by the Congress.

The Samajwadi Party and the Telugu Desam

Party are reported to have stepped up efforts to

narrow down the differences between the two main

Left parties so that a Third Front could emerge.

TDP leader in the Rajya Sabha Chandrasekhar Reddy

has said that differences between the two Left parties

over Andhra Pradesh local bodies elections would

not affect their national politics. CPI(M) sources say

that party general secretary Prakash Karat’s meeting

with Mulayam Singh Yadav recently was a message

to the Congress that the CPI(M) did not subscribe to

what they call Congress-led character assassination

campaign against some Samajwadi Party leaders.

Another occasion for confabulations over the

Third Front idea was provided by the dinner hosted

by Lok Janshakti Party leader and Union Minister

Ramvilas Paswan on the occasion of former Prime

Minister V.P. Singh’s birthday on Sunday, June 25.

Before the dinner meeting, Paswan said that it would

be in his words, “a social gathering of political

leaders from all parties where politics could be

discussed.”

He said leaders of all parties including those

of the Congress, the BJP, the Samajwadi Party, had

been invited to the dinner gathering.

Observers say that the birthday bash may work

as a catalyst for new political formations in the

crucial state of Uttar Pradesh which is going to have

Assembly elections within a year.

Support for the Third Front has also come from

out of power All India Anna-DMK supremo

Jayalalithaa in Tamil Nadu. Speaking in Chennai,

she welcomed the move by the Left parties to explore

the possibility of the Third Front at the national

level. Jayalalithaa said some important leaders had

discussed the issue with her, but she declined to

divulge any names or elaborate on the subject.

Expressing confidence that formation of a third front

was possible, Jayalalithaa said, “It should be made

possible for the future welfare of the nation.”

Jayalalithaa’s All India Anna-DMK lost the

Assembly elections held in Tamil Nadu earlier this

year, but managed to won 61 of the 234 seats in the

state Assembly. One of the reasons attributed for

her defeat was her failure to cobble up a formidable

alliance to take on the DMK-led alliance.

In another significant development, the Janata

Dal (United), a constituent of the National

Democratic Alliance, has announced its decision to

forge an electoral alliance with the Apna Dal for the

Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections. JDU president

Sharad Yadav said in New Delhi on Monday, June

19 that the JDU alliance with the Apna Dal will take

on the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party.

Asked about parting ways with the BJP, he said the

National Democratic Alliance was only at the Centre.

He said in the states, NDA constituents are free to

forge suitable alliances and follow independent paths.

In a related development, Uttar Pradesh Chief

Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav has launched what

analysts call a “development overdrive” setting off

speculation of early polls in the state. The Chief

Minister has been on a foundation laying spree in

the last few weeks. Also recently in Agra, he talked

about early polls in the state.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi, launching

her “mission UP”, has asked party workers to ensure

that opponents are wiped out in the coming electoral

battle. Wrapping up her first visit to Rae Bareli

constituency since she was re-elected to the Lok

Sabha last month, Sonia Gandhi said, “We have to

face the challenge of the Assembly elections.”

Without naming Chief Minister Mulayam Singh

Yadav and Samajwadi Party general secretary Amar

Singh, she said, “Assembly elections are round the

corner in Uttar Pradesh. These polls will decide

who will prevail - the rule of law or the whims of

two or three people who indulge in communal and

casteist politics.”

Meanwhile, leaders of Left parties have been

speaking in ambiguous terms about the formation

of a third front. Speaking at Berhampur, in Orissa,

on June 18, CPI general secretary A.B. Bardhan said

a strong third alternative sans the Congress and the

BJP at the Centre was necessary as the country was

passing through a critical phase. He said that the

Left’s support to the UPA Government was not for

all times to come and depended on how the

Government adhered to the Common Minimum

Programme.

But Speaking in Bhubaneshwar on Wednesday,

June 21, Bardhan said that there was no move to

form a third front at the national level at present.

He said a third alternative could emerge only when

there is a radical programme which can come

through struggle by communist parties and other

democratic processes.

CPI(M) politburo member Sitaram Yechuri,

giving a new twist to the tale, said in Vijaywada on

June 18 that his party is working towards a third

alternative political party, and not a third front. He

said, “We welcome like-minded people to join and

support our issue based policies in a democratic set

up.” He said the Left parties wanted the common

minimum programme to be implemented.