Plagued with contradictions, the Third Front seems to be crumbling under its own weight as all constituent parties have decided to contest against each other reducing the veneer of bonhomie into shreds.
Sample this: The Samajwadi Party has decided not to leave seats for its Third Front partner Janata Dal(U) in Uttar Pradesh and left parties said a polite no to Mulayam Singh Yadav's Samajwadi Party in West Bengal. All these parties are contesting against each other at State level but have put up a façade of unity at national level. The left parties too have declared their candidates in UP and the leaders have asked its workers to highlight misrule of the Akhilesh Government.
The leaders of the Third Front including Samajwadi Party, JD(U) and left parties say they want to consolidate their position in their area of strength. The Samajwadi Party had declared nine candidates from West Bengal while the JD(U) has made up its mind to contest against the Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh.
Senior JD(U) leader Sharad Yadav, who was in lucknow recently, had said that his party would contest election in Uttar Pradesh and the Samajwadi Party is just an electoral rival for it in UP. He has gone on record to say that the JD(U) treats Samajwadi Party a political rival as far as elections are concerned.
Ditto is the thinking in the Samajwadi Party. "There is no electoral adjustment in Third Front. There would not be any sharing of seats among the Third Front partners. This is just a platform where the like-minded parties will come together and give an alternative to the people post lok Sabha election," Samajwadi Party national general secretary Kironmoy Nanda told The Pioneer from Kolkata on telephone.
BJP, however, sees Samajwadi Party's agenda is only to save the Congress. "Only front SP is leading in Uttar Pradesh is Congress Bachao Front (Save Congress Front). The Samajwadi Party has not given candidates against Sonia Gandhi in Rae Bareli and her son Rahul in Amethi to show that the Samajwadi Party is working to protect Congress dynasty. The party that believes in dynastic politics cannot fight for people's rights," BJP spokesman Vijay Bahadur Pathak said.