Third Front show at Bhubaneswar flops

BHUBANESWAR: The Third Front show at Bhubaneswar on Friday proved a dampsquib as it failed to pull crowds. Even Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar skipped the convention as his airplane in which he was scheduled to travel, "developed technical snag."

But Mr Pawar, who came under pressure from the Congress to stay away from the meet, addressed the rally organised on the occasion, over telephone from Mumbai. He spoke barely for two minutes before telephone connection was snapped.

"I wanted to attend the meeting, but failed to reach Bhubaneswar due to technical snag in my plane. I will be visiting Orissa on April 8 for joint poll campaign with Biju Janata Dal", he said.

His absence from the meeting appeared to have dampened the spirit of the Third Front leaders, who, nonetheless, tried to downplay the issue, saying media "should not speculate too much on this."

The NCP national general secretary D.P.Tripathy represented his party in the rally and said, "It is a historic day as BJD formally joined the Third Front."

Besides the NCP, Biju Janata Dal, CPI, CPI (M) and Forward Block joined the rally. The meeting was poorly attended even as the BJD formally kicked off its poll campaign for the coming Assembly and Lok Sabha elections, to be held simultaneously on April 16 and 23, on the occasion.

Addressing the meeting, CPI general secretary A.B.Bardhan said the third alternative was becoming a reality. He said UPA was being weakened following desertion of its allies one after another. Mr Lalu Prasad Yadav���s RJD, Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav���s SP and Mr Ram Vilas Pawan���s LJP have almost withdrawn from the UPA as they have no pre-poll alliance with the Congress, he said.

Lashing out at the UPA government, he said the Centre���s faulty economic policies have led to sky rocketing of prices of essential commodities and loss of nearly 20 lakh jobs in the last one year.

CPM secretary Prakash Karat said the Centre���s economic policies have led to financial crisis in the country. The UPA government has benefited the rich and capitalists only, neglecting the poor. He said a non-Congress and non-BJP force at the helm at the Centre would only work for the common people.

Presiding over the meeting, Orissa chief minister and BJD chief Naveen Patnaik attacked the BJP saying the saffron party was trying to disturb social harmony in the state. He also criticized the UPA government for neglecting Orissa.