The possibility of the formation of a third front of the secular and democratic parties, including the two Left parties, in Punjab appears to be remote. The idea was mooted by the Communist Party of India (Marxist) supremo Harkishan Singh Surjeet as a ballast against both the Akali-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) alliance and the ruling Congress in the assembly elections.
As things stand today, with just less than one month to go for the polls, there is not much response to the idea.
According to sources in the Left parties, the Communist Party of India (CPI) is not keen on the idea. In fact, a majority of the senior Punjab CPI leaders are keen on seat-adjustment with the ruling Congress despite opposition from the partys central leadership.
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It is believed that the partys state unit is interested in contesting about 15 seats. In the 1992 assembly elections, the CPI had won five seats and the CPM had won only one seat. The other secular, democratic party, the Janata Dal (JD), which hardly has any base in the state, had also managed to open its account in the 1992 polls, which was boycotted by the traditional Akalis led by Prakash Singh Badal.
Interestingly, the JDs state unit has now announced that it will contest about 35 seats this time. Political observers say that this time the JD may not succeed even in opening its account.
On its part, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) has kept everyone guessing about its plans in the state. Party chief Kanshi Ram is regularly in touch with both Chief Minister Rajinder Kaur Bhattal and Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee president Santokh Singh Randhawa about a possible Congress-BSP alliance in the state. But, he has yet to give any firm commitment. The state unit of the Congress is more than keen on an alliance with the BSP as it is not interested in contesting more than 70 of the 117 assembly seats.