Tool to enhance bargaining powers in 2014 poll
Those who believe that the coming together of 14 regional and left parties on a common platform in Delhi on Wednesday signals the imminent formation of a robust Third Front regime, must stop having utopian ideas. It is one thing for parties with disparate goals and ideologies to share the dais to spew venom at opponents and another to form a cohesive Government. In any case, it is far from clear if jointly forming the Government has been on the agenda of this grouping. Even more unclear is whether many of these parties are going to remain aloof from either the Congress or the BJP in a post-poll scenario. Those such as the Nationalist Congress Party, which attended the 14-party convention, are currently part of the Congress-led UPA, while another participant, the Samajwadi Party, provides outside support to the UPA regime. That they are unhappy with the Congress is known. Yet, they have continued to back it, and the possibility of their doing so after the election, especially if they find that their purpose can be better served being with the Congress, cannot be altogether ruled out. On the other hand, those like the AIADMK, the Janata Dal (United) and the Biju Janata Dal have all been part of the BJP-led NDA at some point in time or the other. It may be that the JD(U) is today especially harsh on the BJP, but the AIADMK is not and the BJD is restrained in its criticism. How these two parties respond to the situation once the results of the lok Sabha election come in, cannot be determined now. In other words, they are far from certain to be part of the so-called Third Front which will be pitted not just against the Congress but the BJP too.
That the conglomeration of these parties on Wednesday confined itself to targeting the BJP while remaining largely silent on the misdeeds of the Congress, underscores their realisation that it is useless to deliberate much on a party that will be a spent force in the coming lok Sabha election. Even the regional outfits and the left know that the BJP will emerge as the dominant entity that they will have either counter or do business with. Given that the left parties had taken the initiative for the Wednesday meet, which they have marketed as a ‘convention against communalism', the anti-BJP sabre-rattling was only to be expected. However, there are many parties in the grouping that do not share the left's visceral dislike for the main Opposition, and they are bound to speak up when the time is ripe.
Given the incohesiveness of the 14 parties that had gathered as if under one banner, just what was the purpose of their posturing, apart from taking potshots at the BJP and its prime ministerial candidate Narendra ModiIJ It appears to be two: Enhance bargaining power and prepare the momentum for a possible political formation post-election. Given that the left parties had supported UPA1, they may well be sending signals to the Congress through their show of strength. Many regional parties also believe that the Wednesday convention will strengthen the credibility of their claim that they are in a position to provide an alternative non-Congress, non-BJP Government to the people. But the people have not forgotten similar disastrous experiments in the recent past, and they are unlikely to swallow the bait. In any case, any so-called Third Front regime won't survive without the support of either of the two major national parties.