KOCHI, Kerala: The idea of a "Third Front" taking on the ruling Congress party-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) and the principal opposition National Democratic Alliance (NDA) led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections is off.
The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) which has been batting for the Third Front ever since it withdrew support to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh conceded to failure yesterday and said it would form strategic tie-ups with non-Congress "secular parties" at the regional level.
There were no mention of Third Front in the resolutions adopted by the meeting of the party's 86-member Central Committee attended by the entire top brass including general secretary Prakash Karat, West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya and his Kerala and Tripura counterparts.
The three-day meeting that concluded here yesterday finalized the blueprint for the party's poll strategy. The CC could reach a consensus to field its candidates only in 35 constituencies outside the traditional Marxist strongholds of West Bengal, Kerala and Tripura.
The Left could make little progress in forging an alliance with Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati's Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), on which the Left hinges its hopes for a third alternative, as Mayawati was disinclined.
"The BSP has made it clear that they are not entering any electoral alliances. So, we decided to maintain contacts with BSP on issues as they are also fighting the Congress and the BJP.
As far as we are concerned, they are part of an anti-BJP, anti-Congress combination," Karat said addressing reporters after the CC meet.
He, however, claimed of making significant progress in bringing together "secular and anti-imperialist" forces in southern states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu to fight the BJP and the Congress party and hoped to attract their alliance partners after the elections.
In Tamil Nadu, the party will ally with All-India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhakam (AIADMK) of former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalitha and in Andhra Pradesh former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu's Telugu Desam Party (TDP). Janata Dal (Secular) headed by former Prime Minister Deve Gowda will be the Left's ally in Karnataka.
"We are told that the TDP is in talks with the Telengana Tashtra Samithi. Similarly, we hope to bring smaller parties in other states onto a common platform to fight the BJP and the Congress party," he said.
