'Attempt to form third front will not succeed'

Chennai, Apr 29: The All India Congress Committee(AICC) General Secretary Margaret Alva today categorically said the attempt to form the third front at the national level by the AIADMK supremo and the former Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa and other political parties would not succeed.

Talking to newspersons here, she noted out that arithmetically there were not enough parties to form the third front.

To a question, Ms Alva said the outcome of the ongoing Uttar Pradesh assembly polls would not affect the national level politics.

She claimed the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance(UPA) government at Centre is stable, and moreover, parties in UPA alliance are not willing to leave the government led by Manmohan Singh.

''Any assembly polls could not be treated as a referendum for the government at the Centre,'' she stressed.

Asked about the existence of groupisms in Tamil Nadu, she said groupism was everywhere and in every political political party. ''In fact, a little rivary among Tamil Nadu Congress members would pave the way for the growth of the party in the state,'' she added.

Ms Alva said in West Bengal, though there were several groups in the Congress party, the members were taking the initiative for the growth of the party and were fighting unitedly against the CPI(M)-led Left Front government.

Justifying the demand of the Tamil Nadu Congress legislature party for a share in the DMK-led Democratic Progressive Alliance(DPA) government, she said since the DMK is part of the UPA government at the Centre, there is nothing wrong for the Congress legislature party to claim such share.

She said, in fact the Congress is giving a lion's share for its alliance with the Nationalist Congress Party(NCP) at Goa and Maharashtra. In Goa, the Congress gave the Deputy Chief Minister portfolio to NCP, whereas in Maharashtra, some portfolios were allocated to the NCP.

She alleged that after the BJP MP Kathara's involvement in the Human Trafficking issue, the image of the party had been affected.

Ms Alwa later paid homage at the memorial to assassinated former PM Rajiv Gandhi at Sriperampudur near here.

UNI