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Leaders of 11 political parties, including the Samajwadi Party, Janata Dal (United) and Communist Party of India (Marxist) CPI(M), on Tuesday resolved to fight the Lok Sabha polls, with the aim of defeating both the Congress-led UPA and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led NDA.
However, these parties, which together represent states that send 313 of the 543 MPs to the Lok Sabha, will not have any seat adjustments at the national level.
CPI(M) General Secretary Prakash Karat, flanked by Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and SP Chairperson Mulayam Singh Yadav among others, said each of the parties would contest against both BJP and Congress in their respective areas.
The leaders said it was likely some of these parties might get into state-level electoral alliances, like the Left parties with the AIADMK, but there will not be a nation-wide alliance.
The parties also issued a joint declaration. The resolution stated it was “time for a change to throw out the Congress from power” and that “the BJP and the communal forces must be defeated and prevented from coming to power”. The declaration said people should have an alternative to the Congress and BJP — “an alternative which has a democratic, secular, federal and pro-people development agenda”.
The declaration slammed the “anti-people policies” of UPA-II that have led to no economic growth, joblessness, loss of livelihoods for lakhs of tribals, dalits and minorities and “corruption has become the byword for the ruling establishment”.
The declaration said the BJP “which claims to be the alternative” has no policies different from that of the Congress”. Karat said the BJP and its prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi pose a challenge to the edifice of India.
The leaders, the declaration said, have resolved to work to strengthen democracy, establishing a firm secular order, provide people-oriented developmental path to address inequality, social justice, farmers’ interests, minorities and women’s rights and reverse the centralising model at the Centre to create a true federal system.
Nitish Kumar ruled out any possibility of the JD(U)’s rapprochement with erstwhile ally BJP. “There is not an iota of possibility,” he said.
Mulayam Singh said at least four more parties could join the front. In Punjab, the Manpreet Badal-led People’s Party of Punjab is likely to join.
To a question whether AIADMK chief J Jayalalithaa could be the front’s prime ministerial candidate, Karat said she had in his “presence said no political party should raise the matter now. These issues are to be discussed later.”
Leaders or representatives of all 11, barring the Asom Gana Parishard (AGP) and Biju Janata Dal attended the meeting. Karat said AGP chief Prafulla Kumar Mahanta couldn’t attend, as his mother was critically ill but had conveyed that “he is fully with us”.
