Third Front launched, to offer alternative eco policies

Ahead of the General Elections, the Left and some regional parties joined hands to cobble up a eight-party Third Front on Thursday in a bid to form an alternative to the combines led by the Congress and BJP on the plank of decentralisation of power.

AIADMK and BSP supremos--Jayalalithaa and Mayawati, the Uttar Pradesh chief minister-- were not personally present at the launch of the combine spearheaded by JD(S) supremo HD Deve Gowda at a poll rally in Tumkur district in Karnataka but send their senior representatives V Maitreyan and SC Mishra.

Leaders of the new alliance said both the Congress-led UPA and the BJP-led NDA have failed to address people's grievances and discounted suggestions that some regional parties were coming together on an "opportunistic platform."

"We do not want power to be centralised in Delhi. We do not believe in two-party system," CPI-M general secretary Prakash Karat said describing Thursday's gathering as "historic" The new Front comprises the Left--CPI-M, CPI, RSP, Forward Bloc--, TDP, TRS, JD-S and Bhajan Lal's Haryana Janahit Party.

Gowda, the former prime minister, said nothing should be read in the absence of Jayalalithaa and Mayawati claiming they are committed to be in the Third Front. "Mayawati may not share seats but she is with the Front," Gowda said.

The formation of the Front threw up several potential prime ministerial candidates with BSP's Mishra even saying their objective is to make Mayawati as the prime minister. "It is the aim of BSP to make Mayawati prime minister," said Mishra.

TDP leader N Chandrababu Naidu said the Front will have a meeting with Mayawati on March 15 to discuss issues like its prime ministerial candidate.

Both Gowda and Naidu said they are not prime ministerial candidates. "My aim is to bring the Third Front to power. I am not aspiring for the Delhi gaddi," Gowda said.

Joined by CPI leader AB Bardhan, Naidu and Gowda among others, Karat said, "Today we have come together because the country needs a new alternative."

The nascent Front also hopes to rope in Orissa's ruling BJD and got a boost with NCP supremo Sharad Pawar whose party is a key UPA ally said the the new Front cannot be written off.

"If either of the two alliances--UPA and NDA-- don''t get majority it will have to talk to the Thired front. So it can't be written off," said Pawar, whose party is a key ally of UPA.

The Front leaders said they had come together to provide a "new alternative" to the voters ahead of the polls.

"This is a historic get together of all democratic, secular and Left parties in the country to declare that we are all coming together to constitute a third force in this country," Karat said.

"We represent the diversity of India", Karat said, adding,"We want a federal state. We are against centralisation of powers in Delhi."
     
Referring to detractors of the third front who called it a combination of various regional parties on an 'opportunistic platform", Karat said, "I would like to tell critics we do not think the future of the country and a democracy rest with the two parties", obviously targetting Congress and BJP.

"Neither the UPA nor NDA have stable alliances. NDA is a sinking ship.. Orissa has sunk NDA", Karat said. "We represent parties and forces which will provide new policy direction".

BSP leader Mishra said the third front would come to power adding "the Lok Sabha election is the beginning of the end of both parties (Congress and BJP)."

Gowda, who hosted the rally, said the third front would come out with a national policy document on the basis of which it will seek votes in the coming elections.

Maitreyan of the AIADMK said the "people would throw out the UPA lock stock and barrel into the Bay of Bengal" and termed the third front as "people's organisation". He said Jayalalithaa would have attended the rally but was unable to do so since she was leading a massive rally in Tamil Nadu.

A surprise entry at the rally was Bhajan Lal's party Haryana Janhith Congress which was represented by his son Kuldeep Bishnoi.

Karat said the people of the country have realised that future of the country does not lie with the Congress and BJP.

"Today we have come together because the country needs a new alternative", he said.