Third time unlucky Front?

The Left's hope of cobbling together a mythical Third Front seems as elusive as ever

Rakhi Chakrabarty Delhi , Hardnews

It's not happening. The Third Front doesn't seem to be shaping up, at least not before the general elections.

PM-in-waiting, LK Advani, in the BJP's national executive at Nagpur recently, said that this time there would be a direct contest between the two alliances: the NDA and UPA. However, in the general chaos, he himself is not too sure.

The Left Front (LF) constituents have been talking to a wide spectrum of regional parties to cobble together the Third Front. In the February 15 issue of the People's Democracy, CPM general secretary Prakash Karat wrote: "The CPM has called upon non-Congress secular parties to come together on a joint platform for an effective electoral alternative. Such a platform has to be built around pro-people economic policies, defence of secularism and for an independent foreign policy. The work is cut out for the Left and secular forces to present such an alternative."

Speaking to Hardnews, veteran Left leaders likened this line of thinking to building castles in the air. The ground reality, they said, was still not conducive to form a Third Front which could face the Lok Sabha polls as a united front. CPM leaders, however, are putting up a brave front. "It's not a pre-poll front we are looking at but a third alternative," said Mohammed Salim, CPM MP from West Bengal. According to him, pre-poll alliances will be forged with various regional parties depending on the political situation in each state. "We are looking at a seat-sharing arrangement with non-Congress, non-BJP forces," he said. In fact, the initial buzz was that the Left would try to woo some of the UPA allies, too.

Last year, after the LF withdrew support from the UPA government at the Centre, the mood was upbeat about forming the Third Front. Karat's hobnobbing with BSP chief Mayawati raised hopes.

However, as the country inches towards general elections, the prospect of a pre-poll alliance looks bleak. The Left parties would ideally want to act as a catalyst in forming the Third Front. But, even the LF is not moving together except in West Bengal, Kerala and Tripura, where they rule. The CPI and the CPM are plowing on their own in a bid to increase their respective seats.

At its recently-concluded national executive, the CPI announced that it would contest in 50 constituencies. National secretary Atul Kumar Anjan told Hardnews that the Left parties have reached an understanding with the AIADMK in Tamil Nadu, the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) in Andhra Pradesh, the Janata Dal (Secular) in Karnataka and the CPI (ML-Liberation) in Bihar.

In Assam, the Left parties have joined with the Asom United Democratic Front (AUDF) and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) to work out a seat-sharing arrangement. The idea of the Third Front floundered in Assam after the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) went into a pre-poll alliance with the BJP. According to senior RSP leader Abani Roy, his party will announce candidates in Punjab, Orissa, UP and Bihar.