Two years ahead of the general elections, a group of eight regional parties launched a new national front as an alternative to the Congress and BJP.
HYDERABAD: Two years ahead of the general elections, a group of eight regional parties on Wednesday launched a new national front as an alternative to the Congress and BJP.
The name, organisational structure and other details of the front will be worked out soon, AIADMK chief J Jayalalithaa said.
The announcement came after a three hour meeting of regional parties hosted by TDP chief and former Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu.
"It will be a viable national alternative to Congress and BJP. The details will be worked out at our next meeting to be held at Chennai," Jayalalithaa said.
Claiming that more parties were expected to join the front in the coming days, she said: "Our front is open to all secular parties interested in nation building."
Asked whether the Left parties will also be part of the new front, she said, "It entirely depends on them."
The conclave of the regional parties, hosted by Naidu, was attended by Jayalalithaa (AIADMK), Mulayam Singh Yadav and Amar Singh (Samajawadi Party), Brindavan Goswami (Asom Gana Parishad), Omprakash Choutala (Indian National Lok Dal), Babulal Marandi (Jharkhand Vikas Morcha) and Vaiko (MDMK) while K J Thomas of Kerala Congress sent a letter of support.
The idea of floating a new front was first discussed at Allahabad, where leaders of some of the regional parties had met during the Uttar Pradesh assembly election campaign recently.
"Today, we are more in number and the next time when we meet in Chennai, we hope more parties will join," Jayalalithaa said, adding that the date will be announced soon.
It was felt at the meeting that regional parties were set to play a key role in deciding the future coalition governments at the Centre.
Naidu said that the two national parties, Congress and BJP, were on the decline as was evident from the recent Uttar Pradesh elections.
Asked whether Janata Dal (United) and Janata Dal (Secular) would also be invited to join the new political grouping, he quipped, "Wait and see."
On the possibility of Left parties becoming part of the front, he said: "You have to ask them about it".
Naidu, who had played the role of a 'King Maker' during the United Front and NDA regimes, has once again taken the initiative to bring regional parties on a common platform.
The conclave comes at the backdrop of the TDP recently announcing that it would take the initiative in forging a Third Front based on "an alternative economic policy."
The party is positioning itself for a bigger role in national politics as it is hopeful that regional parties would emerge as a formidable force after the 2009 elections and would be in a position to decide the future shape of central coalition.
The regional leaders deliberated on the need for new economic policy that took care of the interests of the poor and middle classes as the UPA government's "wrong and skewed economic policies" had made the life of common man miserable.
Stating that the agriculture sector was facing a crisis because of the raw deal being meted out to farmers, the meeting demanded that the Centre should announce generous subsidies to farmers on the lines of United States' policy.
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