Even as Naveen Patnaik’s Biju Janata Dal (BJD) followers are gloating over his move to play a major role in national politics, there is much doubt over the possibility of formation of the proposed Federal Front, about which Patnaik spoke on his return here from New Delhi on Thursday.
This is because the regional parties across the country have their different problems, according to political observers here.
While Odisha, West Bengal, Jharkhand and Bihar have certain common issues, the States in the southern, western and northern regions have their own problems. Therefore, how can a Federal Front comprising the different regional outfits have common minimum programme, wonder the observers.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee was the regional leader who mooted the idea of a Federal Front and spoke to her Odisha and Bihar counterparts Naveen Patnaik of the BJD and Nitish Kumar of the JD(U), respectively, about it.
The question is if Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress (TMC) would be part of the proposed front, can the platform accommodate the left parties. Unless the left parties are taken in the front, it may not get an adequate number of lok Sabha members to call the short at the Centre, the observers point out.
In such a situation, the leaders of the proposed Federal Front have to break both the Congress-led UPA and BJP-led NDA to bolster the front’s rank if they want that the front to emerge as an alternative to the UPA and the NDA, the observers feel.
Naveen Patnaik has already stated that the Federal Front would not hesitate to include the Samajwadi Party, but the Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav is yet to respond to the proposal.
And the regional outfits like the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) of Andhra Pradesh, the AIADMK of Tamil Nadu and the Akali Dal of Punjab are also yet to react over the move.