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Third Front a necessity : Jyoti Basu

	January 07, 2008

In the wake of the BJP’s victory in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh, the CPI(M) is now saying that the formation of a Third Front has become a necessity. Veteran leader Jyoti Basu said in Kolkata on Jan. 1 that the CPI(M) is talking informally to several national parties on a possible third alternative, strong enough to take on the Congress and the BJP.



“We are talking to various political parties. In March, we have the Party Congress, at which we will discuss the issue and take a decision,” the former Chief Minister told reporters after an unscheduled meeting of the CPI(M) Secretariat at its Alimuddin Street headquarters. “At the moment, there is no clear picture of the third alternative,” he added.



Sources said the “old friends” to be approached include Lalu Prasad Yadav of the RJD and Mulayam Singh Yadav of the Samajwadi Party in the north, and Chandrababu Naidu of the TDP in the south.



In the light of the results of the Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh Assembly elections, the CPI(M) strategists feel the Congress is facing a strong anti-incumbency factor while the BJP is gaining from the situation. The time may be ripe to start building a Third Front, the party feels. “Right now, the BJP has consolidated its strength,” Basu admitted.



“It is clear from the results in Gujarat and Himachal that the Congress is not in very good shape, and the Third Front is imperative to ensure that the BJP does not fill the gap,” a senior CPI(M) leader at Alimuddin Street said.



Given that it has been at loggerheads with the Congress over a range of issues, the CPI(M) cannot fight meaningfully at the national level without a “third alternative”, he admitted. “Because of this compulsion, there is talk again within the party of a Third Alternative,” he said.







Nuclear deal not given up : Pranab Mukherjee



Dismissing any link between the electoral defeat of the Congress in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh and progress with the Left on the Indo-US nuclear deal, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee said in New Delhi on Jan. 4 that the government is working on how it can proceed with the deal.



He discounted the possibility of mid-term polls to the Lok Sabha in the wake of differences with the supporting Left parties on the deal. During an interaction with PTI editors, Mukherjee, the key Government negotiator with the Left on the deal, agreed that “time is running out” for completing the processes in exe¬cuting it. “But one cannot help it,” he said.



He dismissed suggestions that the deal would now be on the back-burner as the Left may step up pressure in the wake of the Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh poll outcome, saying “their position is not linked with electoral successes and reverses”.



Making light of a question on the possibility of snap polls, he said “so long as you go on talking about mid-term poll... ul¬timately we will reach the day when polls will be held in time”.

Mukherjee sidestepped repeated queries on a specific timeframe for operationalising the deal, but hoped that negotiations with the IAEA on a safeguards treaty would be completed by this month-end.







Mamata Banerjee launches anti-CPI(M) front



Trinamul Congress chief Mamata Banerjee on Dec. 30 launched a new political front in West Bengal, called the Progressive Secular Democratic Front. The 16-member front does not include the Congress, the BJP, the SUCI and PDS, major opposition parties in the state.



Mamata Banerjee said that the Front has been set up to take on the CPI(M)-led Left Front in West Bengal. Mamata Banerjee is the chairperson of the alliance.



Observers say the front marks the formal severing of Trina¬mul Congress ties with the BJP in West Bengal. Mamata Banerjee said, “There is no NDA in West Bengal. There is only Progressive Democratic Secular Front.”



The BJP said that a front in West Bengal that does not have the BJP and the Congress will be no threat to the CPI(M).