After Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik’s sudden move to dump the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) boss Mayawati has taken a significant initiative to meet the Third Front leaders for a strategy meeting ahead of the general elections.
The Third Front, a coalition of Left and regional parties, was formally launched today offering an alternative to the combines spearheaded by the Congress and the BJP.
Left sources told Business Standard that Mayawati had sent invitations to top leaders of the “Third Front” for a meeting on March 15 in Delhi to discuss the coming general elections. Mayawati is likely to be present in the capital that day to release a book written on her. “She wants to utilise this opportunity to hold a discussion with CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat and others who are trying to forge a non-Congress, non-BJP coalition government at the Centre,” said a Left leader.
Although her party’s representative Satish Mishra attended the Front’s rally at Dobbspet in Karnataka today, Mayawati decided to stay away. She has also remained non-committal on any pre-poll alliance with the Third Front.
The Third Front leaders, too, have not publicly expressed their interest so far in supporting Mayawati’s prime ministerial aspirations.
The BSP supremo has made it clear that she will contest from as many seats as possible in the coming polls. While she joined hands with leaders like Karat to oppose the Indo-US nuclear deal last year and voted against the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government, she refrained from any alliance with the Left and will even field candidates in the Left’s bastion of Kerala.
Mayawati’s renewed interest in meeting Karat, JD(S) chief HD Deve Gowda and other leaders comes at a time when the Third Front is assuming significance in the wake of the Biju Janata Dal snapping ties with the BJP in Orissa.
Though the Third Front forces have decided against projecting any prime ministerial candidate, a few names have emerged as their possible choices like Chandrababu Naidu and J Jayalalitha. In this context, a section of the Left feels Mayawati’s invitation is aimed at keeping her candidature afloat.
