EFFORTS FOR THIRD FRONT

With political temperature set to rise in the coming days, leaders of Samajwadi Party, Telugu Desam and Left today came together to search for an alternative political platform in the country and attempt to draw contours of such a formation.
Veteran Communist leader A B Bardhan asserted that the time was right for a “third alternative” consisting of communists, socialists and democratic forces with a strong ideological foundation.

“It is my long-cherished idea”, Bardhan said urging the SP Chief Mulayam Singh Yadav to take the lead and bring together all the forces opposed to the Congress and the BJP. “Mulayam Singh has to take an initiative to form an alternative”, he said.

On his part, Mulayam too recognised the need for such a political alternative in the country and then dwelt at length on the ideals of Lohia and the work being down by the SP Government in Uttar Pradesh.

All India Forward Bloc general secretary Debabrata Biswas, however, said while the Left parties were working together in the country, parties and leaders with socialist background have split and working independently.
The leaders were together at a function to mark the release of a book on Ram Manohar Lohia's speeches in Parliament. Mulayam Singh Yadav, Bardhan, CPI party general secretary S Sudhakar Reddy, his All-India Forward Bloc counterpart Debabrata Biswas, Telugu Desam Parliamentary party leader Nama Nageswara Rao and others resolved to work in the direction.
After consultations, the leaders adopted a resolution that although there is a need for alternative politics in the country, such a goal appears “remote and difficult to obtain in present circumstances but a beginning needs to be made on the basis of an agenda.