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Plans for a Third Front has Congress worried

George Iype

The Congress is concerned that leaders of the Left and those of regional parties are keeping in touch, with plans to prop up a possible Third Front-led coalition. The Congress fears that any realignment of forces could wreck its chances of forming a government at the Centre.

Party president Sonia Gandhi is again sending her trusted political negotiators -- A K Antony and Dr Manmohan Singh -- to Madras to strengthen the party's post-poll alliance with the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam. Antony and Singh had successfully negotiated the alliance with AIADMK general secretary J Jayalalitha in the first place.

However, Congress leaders now fear Jayalalitha will dump the party and join hands with Third Front leaders after the election. Ergo, the precautionary measures taken.

So Antony and Singh are to meet Jayalalitha next week and resolve any problem in the AIADMK-Congress relationship. Congress leaders privately admit that a month after making a deal, Jayalalitha has been displaying signs of "uneasiness in continuing the alliance". Late last month, Jayalalitha boycotted an election campaign meeting Sonia Gandhi had addressed in Tamil Nadu.

When contacted, Antony refused to comment on his proposed meeting with Jayalalitha. He asserted "there is no danger to the Congress-AIADMK alliance as of now.

"Our pre-poll alliance and understanding with Jayalalitha is very clear in one point -- that it will continue even after the election," Antony told rediff.com

However, a senior Congress Working Committee leader hinted, "the party is taking all possible measures to ensure that our allies do not drift away from us.

"The leaders who now talk of a Third Front are those very leaders whose political parties will vanish from the national scene after the election," he said, referring to Sharad Pawar's Nationalist Congress Party.

But what has made the Congress try and quickly finalise the power-sharing deal with Jayalalitha is the recent meeting she had with Communist Party of India-Marxist general secretary Harkishen Singh Surjeet.

Many in the Congress feel the CPI-M's plans for a Third Front is a setback for the party. Sonia was planning an alliance with the AIADMK, the Rashtriya Janata Dal and the Left parties when the plan for a Third Front was mooted.

Despite the CPI-M's promise to extend outside support to a Congress-led government, the Left party decided to support the Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh. This, despite the CPI-M having entered into seat adjustments with the Congress in several states.

SP president Mulayam Singh Yadav has put up many candidates in UP to ensure the Congress and Ajit Singh's Rashtriya Lok Dal are defeated this time. Congress leaders accuse the CPI-M of aiding Mulayam Yadav in his efforts.

Congress leaders say though Surjeet meets Sonia frequently to assure her of the CPI-M's support to a Congress-led coalition after the election, he is also seriously negotiating with Pawar and regional leaders to somehow cobble together a Third Front.

Though the dialogue between Pawar, Surjeet and other leaders who are not from the Bharatiya Janata Party or the Congress leaders to form a Third Front have made little headway, CPI-M leaders say a front is inevitable if the National Democratic Alliance led by the BJP fails to win the expected number of seats.

"Surjeet's talks with regional leaders like Jayalalitha and Pawar are important because we expect the poll can throw up a hung Parliament like the one in 1996," a CPI-M Politburo member from Kerala told rediff.com

He said the CPI-M campaign for a Third Front gains strength from three facts. One, the relationship between the Janata Dal-United and the BJP in Karnataka is getting strained. Second, leaders like Ramakrishna Hegde, George Fernandes and Sharad Yadav are in regular touch with Pawar and Surjeet. And third, some NDA allies like the Biju Janata Dal could break away and join the proposed front.

"So we have launched a wooing game now to ensure that we don't stand to lose after the election," the CPI-M leader said.

Even Antony admits he faces a problem here.

"We don't believe what the CPI-M says and does. The CPI-M leaders, like Surjeet, are a bunch of opportunists," he said.

He said it is ridiculous for the CPI-M to talk of a Third Front government right now. "Because no such front exists nowadays. But we would like to make it very clear that no such front will get support from the Congress," he said.

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