Left rift over Third Front

CPI(M) General Secretary Prakash Karat may have caused a flutter in political circles by floating the idea of a Third Front last week, but it has found few takers even within the Left parties.

While CPI General Secretary AB Bardhan has gone public with his apprehension about the viability of a Third Front at this stage, his other Left colleagues are also learnt to hold similar views. Third Front was a "mere (political) perspective""" a viewpoint that was made up only to rein in the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA), said a senior Left leader.

"Do you think it's easy to go along with Mulayam Singh Yadav or Lalu Prasad! We can come together with like-minded parties on common issues, but a Third Front cannot be based merely on an anti-Bush campaign or the Iran nuclear issue. We have much larger concerns," he said.

The idea of a Third Front was not floated in the national context, Finance Minister P Chidambaram had remarked after the UPA-Left co-ordination committee meeting, held last week. Left sources said the finance minister was not far off the mark.

The Left parties are now studying the emerging political equations in West Bengal, before they make any move to add substance to this idea. The idea of a Third Front is aimed at admonishing the Congress against making any attempt for a tie-up with the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress (with the BJP indirectly becoming a part of the so-called mahajot) and cause a bipolar contest (Left versus others) in West Bengal, a CPI(M) Politburo member told Business Standard.

The Left parties were concerned about the growing ambitions of the Congress to consolidate its presence in states even at the expense of its allies at the Centre, said sources. But it was still a long way before a "third alternative" could take a concrete shape, they said.

"It's CPI(M) leaders, like Sitaram Yechury, who call on Congress chief Sonia Gandhi every now and then. What Third Front are you talking about," snapped a senior Left leader. The relations between the UPA and the Left had nevertheless, reached a new low, he added.