Dinesh Kamath's Editorial 'Is third front possible?' that was published in Newsband

Is third front possible?

Nitish Kumar’s statement on the possibility of a third front minus the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party could gain a momentum of its own. This could be a ploy to deny Modi, recently named head of the BJP’s campaign committee, the further satisfaction of being promoted as a prime ministerial candidate for the 2014 Lok Sabha election.

JD (U) have little in common with the Shiv Sena in Maharashtra and the Akali Dal in Punjab. Kumar chose to hold up the possibility of teaming up with the Trinamool Congress in West Bengal and the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) in Odisha, since both are uncomfortable with the BJP’s Hindutva agenda. Kumar could actually end up boosting the ambitions of several regional satraps who would like to be part of a non-Congress, non-BJP government at the Centre. Telugu Desam Party and the AIADMK could think of lending their weight to the new project.

But if you see practically, 2014 is unlikely to usher in a government without the involvement of either the Congress or the BJP. Kumar’s proposal is unlikely to go so far as to make a third front.

All Regional party chiefs are ambitious. Their ambition to rule at the centre for the sake of their own state does not serve a democratic purpose of governance in the interest of country as a whole. Moreover these leaders lack experience of being at international platform and also do not have expertise to formulate national policies. Their only one common policy is to deny power to Congress or BJP on their own.

Jayalalithaa had stated that her party will go it alone and her aim is to bag all 40 Lok Sabha seats. If at all she decides to join any political alliance, it is but natural that her party will land into Narendra Modi led NDA given the closeness of Jayalalithaa with Narendra Modi.

Can Kumar say who is projected as PM in the third front.? With a temperamental Mamata, power hungry Mayawati, eye-on-PM-seat Jayalalitha, is it an easy task to appoint a PM in the third front?

JD [U] should learn from past events. Kumar should know well that Third Front have to fully depend upon outside support of either Congress or BJP for forming the Government. In the past, Congress under Indira Gandhi did not support Charan Singh despite her promises and Charan Singh could not form the Government. Election was declared and Indira won the election to form the Government. BJP supported V. P. Singh's Government from outside and withdrew it because of Singh's plan to implement the Mandal Commission report. The Government fell, election was declared and Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated and the Congress won the election and formed the Government. Third Front enthusiastically under the leadership of Dev Gouda as PM formed the Government with the outside support of the Congress. Sitaram Kesari was instrumental to threaten the Government by withdrawing the support and ultimately withdrew it and the Government fell.

All these above events prove that third front without the support of Congress or BJP is not possible. Only Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party might succeed in defying this rule.