'Post-UP poll scenario may see third alternative'

New Delhi, Apr 9: Left parties have not ruled out the possibility of the re-emergence of the Third alternative but said the outcome of the Uttar Pradesh polls might push the non-BJP, non-Congress parties towards this goal.

Stating that they did not foresee an immediate possibility of the re-emergence of the Third Front, the CPI, CPI(M) and Forward Bloc said the Third alternative could not come into being on the eve of elections.

Talking to UNI, the Left leaders said it had to be permanent political programme based on common ideology, common struggles and common programme and not again as a hotch-potch arrangment and cut and paste patchwork.

Left leaders' observations assume special significance in the backdrop of raising hopes of the formation of Third Front at a rally of the Samajwadi Party at Bareli with speakers including UP Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav, TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu, Indian National Lok Dal chief Om Prakash Chautala and Karnataka SP leader S Bangarappa, stressing that the UP Assembly polls had a national perspective.

While CPI leaders A B Bardha and D Raja, stated categorically that ''the party has nothing to do with it'', the CPI(M) emphasised on common movements and understanding based on common struggles to benefit the common people to lead to the formation of the Third alternative and the Forward Bloc advocated for such an effort but with caution.

Mr Bardhan, CPI General Secretary and Mr Raja, National Secretary, were more forthcoming and categorical in asserting that the Third alternative had to comprise of the Left and the democratic forces.

The CPI leaders did not believe in the formation of any Third alternative which lacked political clarity.

They said there was of course a need for such an alternative in the wake of the Congress losing its credibility by alienating itself from the common people and the lower and the middle classes on account of its failure to contain price rise and inflation. ''In the process, the BJP is regaining the political space.'' ''Issues of public importance have to be identified, common programmes to be evolved and joint struggle have to be waged,'' Mr Raja said, adding that the formation of the Third alternative, as perceived by the Left, would take time.

On the Bareli meeting, he stressed that what Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav was seeking ''is mere politcial opportunism.. The Third Front can not emerge during elections or for elections.'' Mr Raja emphasised that the Left parties had got a definite perspective for the Third alternative.

CPI(M) senior leader Mohammad Salim said the formation of the Third alternative was a long term view, but it would not come as an electoral adjustment. It has to emerge as a distinct identity with policies socially demarcated from the existent ones.'' Mr Salim, the party Deputy leader in the Lok Sabha, said as far as the idea of third alternative was concerned, every political party or a group of political parties are free to discuss the issue.

''The CPI(M) will always try to bring political parties on a common platform for mass mobilisation on such an issue.'' ''The common struggles of the masses against the so-called economic reforms and foreign policy can bring a real unity," the CPI(M) leader stressed.

Forward Bloc National Secretary G Devrajan said he has always advocated for a third alternative but did not want a repeat of the National Front, the 1989 United Front and the People's Front.

''It is true that the leaders who gathered at Bareli stand against Congress, but it is not a true alternative,'' Mr Devrajan said, adding that it was also a fact that the Left parties alone could not establish a Third alternative of their own.

He wanted to know if the AIADMK could opose the SEZ policy? He hoped that the Congress would learn their lessons from its recent electoral debacles in Punjab, Uttarakhand and now in MCD polls, otherwise it would have to pay ''a heavy price.''

UNI

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