Karat, Mulayam revive 3rd front talks
NEW DELHI: Worried that the Muzaffarnagar riots could aggravate the polarisation of the electorate in Uttar Pradesh and elsewhere, Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary Prakash Karat called on Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Mulayam Singh Yadav on Wednesday to revive plans for a “third alternative”.
This was the second meeting between the two leaders in the recent weeks as they discussed plans to convene a national convention on secularism at New Delhi on October 30.
More than being an anti of bringing together the Left and democratic forces is seen as a strategy to contain the possible rise of the BJP in the 2014 elections under the leadership of Narendra Modi.
The SP’S apprehension is that Muzaffarnagar riots –the worst since the 1992 Ayodhya riots – could play to the advantage of the BJP.
“In the event of the Third Front leaders being in a position to form the government in 2014 the support of the Congress will be critical”, a senior SP leader said.
The Third Front concept has inherent contradictions because of pathological hostilities among certain regional party leaders It is considered rather impossi ble to bring Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress and the Left parties on the same platform just as the SP and BSP leaders cannot be on the same page. The AIADMK and DMK leaders are