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Third Front born again

	June 11, 2007

Eight regional parties have announced the formation of a front, to be built as a viable alternative to the Congress and the BJP. Leaders of these parties announced the move after a meeting in Hyderabad on June 6 at TDP president N. Chandrababu Naidu’s residence. They decided to meet again in Chennai to decide on the Front name and their strategy for the Presidential election.



Apart from Chandrababu Naidu, other leaders who attended the conclave in Hyderabad were Mulayam Singh Yadav, S. Bangarappa and Amar Singh of the Samajwadi Party, Jayalalithaa of the AIADMK, Om Prakash Chautala of the Indian National Lok Dal, Babu Lal Marandi of the Jharkhand Vikas Morcha, Brindaban Goswamy of the Asom Gana Parishad and Vaiko of the MDMK. K.J. Thomas of the Kerala Con¬gress did not attend the meeting, but sent a letter of support.



Jayalalithaa claimed that the number of parties interested in joining them had gone up between the first meeting in Allaha¬bad and the second one in Hyderabad. “Some more could join when we meet in Chennai.”



On involving the Left parties in the front, she said it would be better for them to respond.



“We would like all secular parties to come together in the larger goal of nation building.”



Asked about the relevance of such a front at a time when elections were not round the corner, Chautala said: “We cannot rule out the possibility of mid-term elections. But the front is not merely for elections; it is for building a larger coalition of like-minded parties.”



Naidu said the so-called national parties were reduced to the level of regional parties and failed to fulfil people’s aspirations. No national party was in a position to form a gov¬ernment at the Centre without the regional parties’ support.



“Coalition governments have come to stay and the regional parties have a major role in shaping them,” he said.



Mulayam Singh refused to comment on Uttar Pradesh Governor T.V. Rajeswar’s refusal to grant permission to the CBI to prose¬cute Chief Minister Mayawati in the Taj corridor case. “Anyway, the Supreme Court is there,” he said.





Government should keep out of land acquisition for SEZs



Jayalalithaa said that Front leaders agreed that the Govern¬ment should have no role in acquiring land for industrial pro¬jects or special economic zones. She said the trend of state governments entering into agreements with industrial houses to procure land for industrial projects by coercing poor farmers to part with their land at dirt cheap rates has to be condemned,



The Front opposed the India-US nuclear deal. It alleged that the UPA Government was on the verge of surrendering the country’s strategic independence to the United States. Jayala¬lithaa said the India-US deal is detrimental to India’s national interests.



The Congress says that it is not perturbed by the coming together of eight regional parties. Party general secretary Jayanti Natrajan said in New Delhi on June 6 that coming together of parties is a natural process in a democracy. She dismissed charges by the new grouping that the UPA coalition was pursuing economic policies detrimental to the interests of the people and was helping big business and multi-nationals.



Observers say that the formation of the new front poses a threat to the prospects of the two principal political players at the national level, more in the case of the BJP than for the Congress.



With the saffron outfit’s political clout shrinking, the new front can act as a rallying point for disgruntled elements within the party as also potential allies. The BJP either has no base or a minimal presence in quite a few states. Its search for friends in these states is likely to hit a roadblock with the launch of the new grouping.



Among the leaders who showed up at the Hyderabad meeting, a few had teamed up with the BJP in the past, but fell out because of one or the other reason. These include TDP leader Chandrababu Naidu, AIADMK supremo Jayalalithaa, MDMK leader Vaiko and INLD leader Om Prakash Chautala.



By joining the new front, these parties have declared their intention of staying away from the BJP putting a spanner in the latter’s efforts to reach out to new friends in an attempt to cobble together a formidable alliance to take on the UPA in the 2009 general elections.



The unveiling of the new coalition at the national level also holds dangerous portents for the Congress. With the Manmo¬han Singh government’s popularity graph plummeting, there is a growing unease within the ruling coalition over its prospects in the next general elections.