Parties to annouce third front sans BJP, Congress soon

Test of this new political formation will be degree of unanimity at convention against communalism on Oct 30

Strenuous efforts are on to forge a third front of non-BJP, non-Congress political parties and an announcement could be made in weeks rather than months, maybe even as early as November, political sources close to the negotiations said.

CPI M leader and Rajya Sabha MP Sitaram Yechury is in Chennai today and Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (ADMK) sources said Jayalalithaa could be sounded as convenor.

Although BJP leader Narendra Modi tried to meet Jayalalithaa when he was in Chennai, he failed. Jayalalithaa did nothing to prevent a demonstration against the Modi visit by the Students’ Federation of India (SFI) which is the students’ wing of the CPIM. The ADMK and the Left parties are in alliance in Tamil Nadu.

The test of this new political formation will be the degree of unanimity at a convention against communalism on 30 October. Although serious differences on fundamental issues – like a common stand on convicted MPs – continue preventing agreement on a common minimum programme, discussions are on to have a broad front committed to anti-communalism which will prevent the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) getting any fresh allies.

The Samajwadi Party is holding talks with Trinamul Congress, but the latter is likely to keep its own counsel, given that the Front is a largely Left-driven initiative.Odisha’s ruling Biju Janata Dal and the Andhra Pradesh based YSR Congress have already indicated that they would be amenable to supporting any formation that is ‘not communal’.

Recognising that seat sharing in the 2014 general election might be a problem – although the ADMK is ready to give the CPI and the CPI M one seat each as a ‘friendly gesture’ while contesting the rest of the 38 seats in Tamil Nadu on its own – leaders say that seat sharing is a distant goal.

Instead, the endeavour will be to prevent parties from making any commitment to the BJP; and evolving a common minimum programme that could become a testament for a durable relationship after 2014.

Many of the protagonists of the Third Front were together between 1996 and 1998. They expect a hung parliament next year, following which they see an opportunity to form the next government with outside support from the Congress party.

While the Left Front sustained the Congress party-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government in its first tenure before withdrawing support over differences on Indo-US civil nuclear deal, the Samajwadi Party is still a part of UPA-II: its letter of support to the Congress-led UPA is still with the President of India.

The parties in the putative third front are confident that the Congress party would extend support to their effort to form the next government to keep BJP out of power.

ADMK sources say the Janata Dal United is likely to join forces with the Congress and is less enthusiastic about the third front than the others. But smaller parties like the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) and the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) are looking at a third front to boost their relevance in national politics.

Although the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) is part of the ruling Congress-led alliance in Maharashtra, they do not rule out the possibility of its exit, depending on the result of the assembly elections in Maharashtra.