leaders of about six regional parties and the left front are meeting here on October 30 to take up the “cause of common people”, an exercise seen as another attempt to revive the Third Front.
leaders from AIADMK of J Jayalalithaa, BJD of Naveen Patnaik, JD(U) of Nitish Kumar, Samajwadi Party of Mulayam Singh Yadav, JVM of Babulal Marandi, HD Deve Gowda ( JD-S) and the left front parties like CPM and the CPI will participate in the event at the Talkatora Stadium. Among Chief Ministers, expected to attend include, Nitish Kumar (Bihar), Akhilesh Yadav (Uttar Pradesh), Neiphiu Rio (Nagaland) of Nagaland People’s Front, and Manik Sarkar (Tripura).
“It is not a third front. Shape of the third front will take place only after the election, when strength of each party is known. This event is just to bring together all those who can take other people along and talk of inclusive politics.” JD(U) chief Sharad Yadav told reporters.
Yadav claimed opposition parties have fought against price rise and corruption in the last few years and the October 30 conclave was to bring together like minded people for the cause of the aam aadmi.
Sources claim the event was a brainchild of CPM general secretary Prakash Karat, who is wary of a similar ‘Third Front’ plan by arch-rival Mamata Banerjee of the Trinamool Congress. The West Bengal chief minister had set the cat among the pigeons in June this year with her “Federal Front” idea.
CPM leader Sitaram Yechury has sent the invitation to these parties for the event, saying it has “become necessary for democratic and secular forces” to come together to reply to the challenge posed by communal forces. The invitation describes the recent riots in Muzaffarnagar as a ‘matter of concern for all of us’.
Most of these parties attending the event compete with their rivals in the State for minority votes and fear that the emergence of Narendra Modi on the national scene would lead to polarization to BJP’s advantage.
Interestingly, Telugu Desam party chief N Chandrababu Naidu has not been invited to this event, despite him being a strong force behind most of the non-Congress governments that the country has seen.
The obvious reason seems to be his recent overtures to Modi, which has not gone down well with Third Front aspirants. The event also excludes Jagan Mohar Reddy of the YSR Congress. A strong opposition from the CPI, which favours Telangana and has led anti-Jagan protest in Andhra Pradesh, has been cited as the reason for keeping him out.