Third Front Redux

Eight regional parties and four Left parties have jointly projected an alternative front to defeat Congress and BJP in the Lok Sabha elections. They also placed a joint declaration, pledging to fight against corruption and communalism.
The announcement was made after leaders of JD(U), SP, AIADMK, JD(S), Jharkhand Vikas Morcha and four Left parties held a meeting in New Delhi. The declaration said, “it’s time for a change and to throw out Congress from power... BJP and the communal forces must be prevented from coming to power.”
When asked about his party’ support to Congress at many “crucial moments”, Mulayam Singh Yadav said, “I have opposed Congress most of the times in Lok Sabha.” Asked whether the combination would take Congress or BJP support post-poll to form government, JD(U) chief Nitish Kumar said “there is no question, no chance” of taking support or supporting either of these two major parties.
A non-Congress, non-BJP coalition had always had the support of one of these parties so far. Even the Janata Party government of 1977-79 had the Bharatiya Jan Sangh as one of the parties that had merged to form Janata Party.
Addressing the meeting, CPM general secretary Prakash Karat accused Congress of having “a record of misrule, corruption, unprecedented price rise and creating glaring inequalities.” He said the front will “work for the defeat of Congress.” On BJP, he said it was “no different from Congress”. On the issue of the PM candidate, these parties said it would be decided only after the polls.
BJD supremo and Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik, the first to advocate an alternative front minus Congress and BJP, however, said in Bhubaneswar that it was still too early for such a move.
“I think, the moment is still in early days,” Patnaik told reporters in reply to a question on the BJD's absence at the meeting. BJD had sent a representative, Kendrapara MP Baijayant Panda, in an earlier meeting in Delhi on October 30.
Prafulla Kumar Mahanta's Asom Gana Parishad too was absent at Tuesday’s meeting.
While BJD’s absence may have indicated that Patnaik was not interested in a pre-poll alliance, political observers also don’t rule out Patnaik keeping away to prove Narenda Modi wrong. Modi, had during his February 11 rally in Odisha claimed that the third Front was a combination of parties who supported Congress in crisis.
“As Naveen is totally opposed to Congress, both in the state and at the Centre, he does not want to share the dais with the other parties at this moment,” said a senior party leader. BJD, he said, was in a strong position in Odisha, and therefore was not in favour of seat sharing with CPI and CPM with whom the regional outfit had entered into adjustment in 2009 general elections. BJP was quick to dismiss Tuesday’s meeting as a scattered morcha getting together and alleged it was aimed at helping Congress and stopping Narendra Modi from coming to power.
“This is not a Third Front but a 'bikhra morcha'. This third front or fourth front in the form of AAP are proving to be a Congress front just to stop Modi from coming to power...But they have failed miserably in their efforts,” BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar said.