New Delhi: As the country gets ready to elect the 16th Lok Sabha, some regional leaders along with the Left Front are trying to present a non-Congress, non-Bharatiya Janata Party alternative. The proposed front is likely to include at least 14 parties with the constituents of the erstwhile Janata Dal forming the largest chunk even though the Left Front has denied that a formal political unit will be formed before the Lok Sabha elections.
An initiative of the Left Front and Janata Dal United, the group is likely to include Janata Dal Secular (JDS), Samajwadi Party, Biju Janata Dal (BJD), Asom Gana Parishad (AGP), All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Khazgam (AIADMK) and Jharkhand Vikas Morcha (Prajatantrik) and will have regional electoral arrangements with the communist parties.
All the Left Front constituents - Communist Party of India (CPI), Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPIM), Revolutionary Socialist Party and All India Forward Block - are on board in a bid to present a viable non-Congress, non-BJP front.
CPIM Rajya Sabha MP Sitaram Yechury said a meeting of secular democratic parties has been called on February 5 to discuss the upcoming Parliament session because the United Progressive Alliance government may try to push a lot of legislation without proper discussion. He added that Lok Sabha elections is also on the agenda and the Left parties will enter into electoral arrangements with some regional parties.
"No front is going to be formed before the elections. There will be regional understandings, electoral arrangements in various states between the Left and various regional parties. Most of these parties are state specific. All non-Congress, non-BJP secular democratic parties are going to attend the meeting. Right now it is the JDU, JDS, Samajwadi Party, BJD, AIADMK, Asom Gana Parishad that will attend," Yechury told IBNLive.com on phone from Hyderabad.
JDU spokesperson KC Tyagi elaborated that the meeting has been called to take forward the discussions held in October 2013 between parties for presenting a third option to the voters.
"On the initiative of Left parties a meeting of 14 like-minded parties was held on October 30, 2013 at Talkatora in Delhi. After that there were state elections and BJP formed government in three states. The results show that Congress has been unable to counter the BJP. Where ever there was an option other than BJP and Congress like the Aam Aadmi Party in Delhi, people voted for the third party," said the JDU spokesperson.
"Left has on February 5 called a meeting of secular forces in Delhi. The idea is that if the parties agree on a common minimum programme like countering BJP's communalism, Congress's corruption and its step motherly treatment of states, then an alliance can be formed. This is an initiative by the Left parties and JDU welcomes the move. JDU, JDS and Samajwadi Party belong to the Janata pariwar. There is a proposal to bring all these parties together and form a federal front," he said.
He, however, ruled out the merger of the Janata pariwar constituents. "These parties will not merge. They will have their separate identities and will help each other during the elections," he said.
The proposed front does not have the Aam Aadmi Party on its radar yet. Tyagi said that JDU has supported AAP on several issues. "But it is a different kind of party, we are with them on some issues, but till now there has been no talks with AAP on our initiative," he said.
The front hopes to be a major player in Lok Sabha elections on the basis of the number of seats that its constituents are likely to win their regions of influence.
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