No Third front now: CPM general secretary Prakash Karat

“There is no possibility of a third front in the present political situation,” CPM general secretary Prakash Karat has told ET. The statement is significant as SP president Mulayam Singh Yadav had said recently that Congress or BJP would not form government at the Centre and the welfare of the people would be possible only after a third force comes to power.


While the Left ruled out revival of a Third Front before elections, Karat refused to get into the post-poll scenario. “We are now getting into hypothetical questions,” Karat said when asked about the possibility of Left supporting a Mulayam-led a Third Front government after 2014 elections. Yadav has been in touch with CPM and CPI.

According to a source, though Yadav is not keen on pulling the plug on the Congress-led UPA government, he is trying to conjure a third alternative. The Left Front, however, does not seem to be keen after its 2009 experiment failed. Karat also brushed aside statements of senior Congress minister Vayalar Ravi, who had suggested that Congress and Left could work together even before the elections. “There is no question of working with Congress,” Karat said. When pointed out that the Left had supported a Congress-led UPA-I in 2004, he said the circumstances were different as it had come after six years of BJP rule.