Third front leaders to discuss Presidential elections

A crucial meeting of leaders of five regional parties under the informal banner of "Third Front" is being hosted by Telugu Desam Party president N Chandrababu Naidu here on June 6 to decide on their strategy for the forthcoming Presidential and Vice-Presidential elections.

Apart from host Naidu, other regional leaders expected to attend the meeting are Samajwadi Party supreme Mulayam Singh Yadav, All India Anna DMK president Miss J Jayalalithaa, Indian National Lok Dal Chief Om Prakash Chautala and Asom Gana Parishad president Brindaban Goswami. Amar Singh and other leaders of these parties will also be present.

The ruling United Progressive Alliance alongwith the Left Front are expected to announce their candidates for the President and Vice-President. The opposition National Democratic Alliance is also poised to field its own candidates for these two key posts. In this backdrop, the meeting of Third Front leaders assumes importance.

According to calculations, the five regional parties (SP, AIADMK, TDP, INLD and AGP) together command a voting strength of 99,420 in the electoral college of 10,98,882 for the Presidential poll.

The share of these parties works out to 9.05 percent of the total electoral college. As on date, these five parties have 82 MPs (46 members in Lok Sabha and 36 in Rajya Sabha). The value of each vote of MPs is 708. This comes to 58,056 for the five parties.

SP has 54 MPs (38 members in Lok Sabha and 16 in Rajya Sabha) while AIADMK has 14 MPs (two Lok Sabha and 12 Rajya Sabha members). TDP has 10 MPs (four in Lok Sabha and six in Rajya Sabha). INLD has only two Rajya Sabha members and AGP has only two Lok Sabha members.

SP has 97 members in Uttar Pradesh Assembly. With the value of each vote of MLA in that state being 208, SP accounts for a value of 20,176. AIADMK has 61 members in Tamil Nadu Assembly. With each vote of MLA valued at 176, AIADMK's vote value comes to 10,736.

Similarly, Telugu Desam, with a strength of 46 members in Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly accounts for a total value of 6,660 votes as the value of each vote of MLA in the state is 148.

AGP has 24 members in Assam Legislative Assembly. As each vote of MLA there is valued at 116, the value of AGP votes comes to 2,784. In Haryana, the INLD has nine members in the Assembly.

The value of each vote of MLA in that state works out to 112 and thus the INLD accounts for a total value of 1,008. The overall value of votes of 236 MLAs of these parties adds up to 41,364, or 7.52 per cent of the total value of 5,49,474 of the electoral college of all state assemblies. The total strength of MPs is 776 and their vote value aggregates to 5,49,408.

The overall strength of the State Assemblies is 4,120 and the aggregate value of their votes comes to 5,49,474. The total value of votes of all the 4,896 electors works out to 10,98,882. Given the respective strength of their two main alliances (and the parties supporting them from outside), a keen contest seems to be on cards for the Presidential polls.

It is here that the Third Front comes into the picture. Naidu has made it known that the new formation is opposed to both the Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party and the coalitions led by them.

Since the TDP is seeking to rope in the Left parties into the Third Front at the tine of 2009 general elections, Naidu does not want to support the candidate sponsored by the NDA. At the same time, if the Left Front supports the UPA (Congress) nominee, the TDP boss would not like to extend support to such a candidate.

The June 6 meeting will discuss whether the Third Front should field its own candidate to put up a token fight or abstain from voting altogether since the five parties do not have sufficient strength. In case these regional parties decide to set up a candidate, the meeting would discuss whether the nominee should be a non-political person of eminence.

It may be recalled that at the time of the last Presidential elections in 2002, Naidu had worked for evolving a consensus on the candidature of Dr A P J Abdul Kalam while the Left parties had fielded Mrs Lakshmi Sahgal.

Incidentally, the NDA had opposed a second term for the then President K R Narayanan and Naidu had backed out after assuring support to then Vice-President Krishan Kant for his elevation. A dejected Krishan Kant passed away suddenly.

The June 6 meeting is also expected to chalk out the strategy for the Vice-Presidential polls. The electoral college for the Vice-President consists of all MPs (both from Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha).

Here, too, the five-party grouping accounts for 82 members out of a total electoral college of 776 members.