Jan 11, 1999
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THIRD FRONT Forced into Unity A resurgent Congress compels the Third Front to consolidate its base and create a space of its own. By Javed M Ansari "From now on anti-Congressism is
dead. The only issue before us is "It is the Congress which is
responsible for the rise of the BJP and now its continuance in power. We must maintain
equal distance from both parties."
The transformation from friend to foe is understandable. In March, when the Congress won no more than 145 Lok Sabha seats despite Sonia Gandhi's active campaigning, leaders of the erstwhile United Front (UF) could afford to talk down to her. Eight months later, after the Congress surpassed its own hopes of retaining Madhya Pradesh and regaining Rajasthan and Delhi in the assembly elections, it is Sonia and her party who are dictating terms. Used to dealing with a party that was willing to make compromises, Third Front leaders have suddenly begun feeling distinctly uncomfortable with a confident and resurgent Congress. The Rashtriya Loktantrik Morcha's (RLM) stablemate, the Left, which is generally consistent in such matters, has also begun veering around to the idea of reviving the Third Front. The Congress-BJP dalliance during the recently-concluded winter session of Parliament on issues like the Insurance Regulatory Authority Bill and the Patents Bill, as also Sonia's cold response to offers of support to dislodge the BJP Government, have pushed the Left back to its familiar Congress-bashing mode. "They are welcome to delude themselves into believing that they can come to power on their own," says CPI(M) General Secretary Harkishen Singh Surjeet. Clearly, the left parties are livid that the Congress, flush with its victory in the assembly elections, should now begin to dictate terms. While the UF and left parties are keen to topple the Vajpayee Government at any cost, the Congress seems intent on consolidating and coming to power on its own, preferably after a snap election. The leftists, however, view it differently. They see the assembly-poll results more as a verdict against the BJP than a positive vote for the Congress. "They are fooling themselves if they think that this was a vote in their favour," says CPI General Secretary A.B. Bardhan. He points out that despite the recent showing, the Congress continues to be a peripheral force in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. It's their growing disenchantment with the Congress and the fear of being isolated in a bi-polar polity that have forced left and RLM leaders to revive the Third Front. Already, Surjeet has been persuading leaders of the erstwhile UF to sink their differences. Keen to ensure that personal prejudices which marred the functioning of the UF earlier are sorted out before they get together again, he recently persuaded Mulayam and H.D. Deve Gowda to meet over a quiet dinner. For his part, Deve Gowda plans to visit Laloo Yadav -- with whom he had fought bitterly -- in jail as a prelude to a rapprochement between the RLM and the JD. "Give us some time, we will get it right," says the former prime minister. However, beyond their annoyance with the Congress lies a greater dilemma: the search for a niche distinct from both the Congress and the BJP. Basically products of the anti-Congress movement, the Third Front constituents grew in strength primarily because of the drifting away of the minorities and the SC/STs from the Congress and the consolidation of the OBCs behind the various Janata Party incarnations. But by associating openly with the Congress and asking it to take the lead in toppling the BJP Government, they appear to have inadvertently absolved the Congress in the eyes of the minorities. "The Congress only used us to gain credibility among the minorities," rues senior SP leader Amar Singh. Indeed, leaders of the Third Front now realise that individually they stand little chance and are likely to be steamrolled by the two major parties. The first tentative steps towards consolidating their base was made on December 11 when they joined hands for a nationwide industrial strike. The SP has begun to rev up its party machinery. After the recent brainstorming session in Etawah, it called a three-day meeting of its national executive in Bhopal from January 29. The RLM leaders are waiting for Laloo's release from jail before they hit the road in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. "We will prove our strength on the ground," says Mulayam. From the looks of it, they certainly have a lot to prove. |
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There have been numerous
flip-flops in Indian politics. But nothing as remarkable as that of the Third Front
leaders, particularly Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Mulayam Singh Yadav. In March last year,
barely a fortnight after the Vajpayee Government assumed office, Mulayam and other Third
Front leaders took turns in offering unsolicited support to the Congress. But as the year
drew to a close, Mulayam once again marked the Congress out as an enemy to be treated on
par with the BJP. 
