Third Front disappears faster than it appeared

NEW DELHI: The much-touted Third Front has disintegrated faster than it came together. The photo-op that the group presented barely two weeks ago now looks from a different era.

After Jayalalithaa's AIADMK, Naveen Patnaik's Biju Janata Dal (BJD) and even JD(S) look set to break ranks. Asom Gana Parishad, which had skipped the last meeting, says it would weigh its options before making any commitment to the non-Congress, non-BJP front.

It seems even the Samajwadi Party is keeping its options open. In the last fifteen years, Mulayam Singh has changed stance more often than any other political party and abandoned Left on several occasions.

This is how a senior Left leader reasoned out the latest political developments: "The last fifteen years have seen Congress and BJP-led alliances running stable governments at the Centre. On the other hand, memories of 1977 Janata experiment, VP Singh government of 1989 and Deve Gowda government of 1996 are associated with unstable governments.

In the changed political scenario, regional parties want a favourable central government. All this has put the idea of Third Front under strain. But Indian politics needs to come out of it bipolar fixation."

Four Left parties, as one top political cartoonist said, are the only ones left in the lurch. Prime movers of the Third Front — CPM, CPI, RSP and FB — are finding it hard not only to expand the umbrella but even draw allies in several states. The Tamil Nadu story is well-known. In Karnataka possible alliance with JD (S) is in jeopardy and in Odisha, it is unlikely that the ruling BJD will give any seat to CPM. BJD might give one seat — Jagatsinghpur — to CPI since it has a sitting MP from the constituency.

In Andhra Pradesh, CPI and CPM — on opposite sides of the spectrum — are still hunting for allies. CPM expects an alliance with Jagan Mohan Reddy's YSR Congress while CPI is looking towards Telugu Desam Party.

CPI's D Raja is still hopeful. "We did not to call it any front. Coming together of non-Congress, non-BJP parties is a process. It will take time. May be many of the parties are not willing to change their programmes and policies. It is their problem."