Ex-MP Raju Shetti reaches out to BRS to form new front in Maharashtra

A newly formed alliance of two small parties in Maharashtra is seeking to expand that into a third front of political parties opposed to both the ruling BJP-led NDA and the Congress-led group that is calling itself "INDIA".

The Pragatik Vikas Manch (PVM), the new alliance whose key leaders are former MP Raju Shetti's Swabhimani Paksha and the Peasants and Workers Party, has approached other small parties and Telangana's ruling Bharat Rashtra Samiti (BRS) to form a third front. Shetti said on Saturday that this was an attempt to build an alternative to the BJP and the Congress.

"Yes, we are going to soon hold a meeting in Kolhapur of smaller parties like the CPI, CPI-M, Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Vikas Aghadi ... we have had a bad experience of the two parties and so we want to give an alternative," he told ET.


While such an alliance of small parties in Maharashtra may not be a concern for either the BJP or the Congress, Shetti's coalition is looking to get the BRS into the mix to make the third front a formidable one in the state.

Telangana chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao has held several rallies in Maharashtra recently, expressing his party's desire to contest the assembly and parliamentary polls in the state.

Shetti said Jayant Patil, who heads the Peasants and Workers Party, was in talks with the BRS on behalf of the PVM.