Dinesh Kamath's Editorial 'How is the idea of a third front?' that was published in Newsband

How is the idea of a third front?

Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao mooted a non-BJP, non-Congress ‘federal’ front. But is the alliance a coming together of like-minded parties? He found ready support from West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, whose Trinamool Congress is fighting the Left and the Congress on one side, and the BJP on the other.

The only instances when non-Congress, non-BJP coalitions came to power were in the ninth and eleventh Lok Sabhas. In each case, the governments were supported from the outside by either the Congress or the BJP.

It is unclear whether the BJP and the Congress will support a grouping of smaller parties just to keep each other out of power. The third front as proposed by Rao cannot be an electoral alliance in the proper sense. The parties do not add to each other’s vote banks: they are mostly fighting their own battles in their own areas.

As a regional party with the Congress as its main rival, and the BJP a potential threat, the TRS is at present irrelevant outside of Telangana. A third front can be Rao’s vehicle to arrive on the national stage. Both Telangana and Andhra Pradesh are scheduled to have Assembly elections along with the Lok Sabha polls in 2019. For the Trinamool, the Left and the BJP remain the principal threats, and at the national level the Congress is still a partner Ms. Banerjee can do political business with.

There is one advantage of third front. It is time regional parties have a say in the financial, defence and security, foreign relations, welfare and economic policies as these collectively and geographically contribute to its national exchequer. National spending is actually subsidized by the tax collected from all states and union territories. Budgetary allocation are actually the amount collected from all states. Bank advances and loans are actually made from deposits made by citizens residing in the various states. Every morse of food - grains, fruits and vegetables are grown in the various states produced by 70% of population. but the farmer in these states are not compensated even the cost of production. However, these are traded for five to 10 times the cost of production and profited by trade and industry without any benefits passed on for rural growth - economic benefit or value added revenue of agriculture is channelised to the trade and industry

But there is also danger if the third front is formed. The major plank for a loosely knit Federal front with no common ideology and cobbled up after election result would lead to intra fight for leadership and will impose great calamity politically and economically. Mamata and Rao have their parties with many common aspects. They have no relevance outside home states. They have the shared agenda of keeping the BJP and INC out. The leaders of both parties are obstinate. India is nowhere on the agenda - they're myopic. Neither do they have any national level experience - if you are thinking about Mamata's stint as the railway minister then extreme WB focus does not make that experience. They have a shared emphasis on bandhs. Do these factors provide any meaningful alternative even close to NaMo?

If the third front is formed by regional parties, what would be their agenda for national development? Each regional party will fight for their states and in the process the progress as a nation will suffer. As it is each state is trying its best to get lions share from the center by hook or crook, if the third front is created by joining of regional parties, God save the country - India

Political confusion is leading to all sorts of permutation and combinations. This is because the ruling party is winning some and losing some. Regional parties are scrambling for political space. The BJP now or the Congress when in power were pretty sure that a motley crowd of ambitious state satraps cannot form any durable alternative to the big and sold national parties. Now that most of the state leaders are being pushed back they are in a stress and trying to evolve into an alternate and formidable force. But in hind sight such formulation appears a long way off.