The so-called Third Front of regional and left parties on Tuesday tried to assert their relevance in the lok Sabha polls by vowing to give a non-Congress non-BJP alternative at the Centre. Throwing the “corrupt” Congress will be its top priority, and preventing the BJP from capturing power at the Centre an equally important task.
Addressing a joint Press conference, the leaders of the front said that the party would decide on the choice of its Prime Minister only after the general elections. The BJD and the AGP, which are part of this front, were absent from the meeting. CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat said leaders of the BJD and the AGP had conveyed their willingness to associate with the front but due to prior engagements they could not attend the meeting. The joint declaration issued by the parties mentioned the names of the BJD and the AGP, along with other nine parties present in the meeting.
The joint declaration issued by the front appealed to other non-Congress and non-BJP parties to join their platform “in the interest of nation.” leaders of Samajwadi Party, Janata Dal (United), Janata Dal (Secular), AIADMK, and Jharkhand Vikas Morcha, CPI(M), CPI, RSP and Forward Bloc attended the meeting. On the questions of State-level differences between left parties and other members of the front, Karat said the front was formed with the national scenario in mind and issues like seat-sharing at the State level would be sorted out amicably.
Reacting on who will be the front’s choice for Prime Minister’s post, Karat, Mulayam Singh Yadav and Nitish Kumar unanimously said: “These things will be decided after the election.” On AIADMK floating the name of its supremo Jayalalithaa as Prime Ministerial candidate, Karat said: “She has told us that the issue of the Prime Minister candidate will be decided later.”
Pointing to the misrule, massive corruption, unprecedented price rise during the UPA II Government, Karat said: “We will work for the defeat of the Congress.” Reacting on the BJP, he said the party was “nt different from the Congress”. Their record for corruption in the Centre earlier and in States now was “as bad or worse than the Congress. The BJP also poses a challenge to the very secular edifice of our State and society, he said.
Asked whether JD(U) will again re-align with the BJP if the third alternative experiment did not work, Nitish Kumar asserted that he will have “no contact, leave alone return to the BJP”. Mulayam faced embarrassing questions on his frequent support to the Congress for the past five years. Though he tried to avoid questions, he was reminded by Sharad Yadav that the media wanted to know whether Mulayam would desert the front.
“We have opposed the Congress on so many occasions….Samajwadi was always in the forefront of secularist vision…as far as on the issue of Prime Minister, we will decide it after the election,” quipped Mulayam, leading to the closure of the joint Press conference of the leaders in Tripura Bhawan in Delhi.