The Third Front's third assault

Now is the time for all good men and women to come to the aid of the partyrdquo Only there is no party just the atmosphere being created for it Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalitha hinted at a nonCongress nonBJP front when she talked about interstate regional cooperation The meeting of minds between Jayalalitha and Naveen Patnaik was evident during the long hours spent in ripping apart the proposed National Counter Terrorism Centre NCTC The poor showing by the Congress and the BJP in assembly elections has stirred the latent ambition among regional satraps for one more shot at forming a third front government in Delhi To dismiss this loose grouping with no ideological base as a joker in the pack would be a grave mistake Of course if you play rummy you would know that a joker could win you a hand The Third Front has had two successful attempts at government formation In 198990 under the leadership of N T Rama Rao the National Front was created with V P Singh as convener The Telugu Desam Janata Dal DMK AGP with outside support from the Left Front and the BJP formed a government That experiment failed and we had two Prime Ministers V P Singh from 19891990 and Chandrashekar from 19901991 This was a period of political and economic instability in the country Infighting There is no consensus on who could lead the BJP in 2014 as there is no meeting of minds between the Delhi4 comprising of Sushma Swaraj Arun Jaitley Rajnath Singh and V Naidu The second attempt at government formation by the Third Front was after the fractured verdict by the Indian electorate in the 1996 elections which saw the BJP forming a government for a mere13 days but unable to muster up the numbers in Parliament The Congress with 140 seats refused to form a government but provided outside support to the United Front government of Deve Gowda The Janata Dal led coalition had the rag tag grouping of the CPIM CPI SP DMK TDP AGP and Tamil Manila Congress We had two Prime Ministers during this period Deve Gowda 19961997 and I K Gujral 19971998 Again the country slid further into nongovernance and tumult Both Gowda and Gujral were not allowed to settle into their jobs Sitaram Kesari who headed the Congress at that time didnrsquot allow the Third Front to last its term or either of the two Prime Ministers to stay in office Despite the mess the electorate still did not give the BJP or the Congress a clear majority in the next election The National Democratic Alliance NDA coalition led by the BJP was voted to power and survived its full term from 19982004 because of the tall stature of Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee This was marked by a period of stability growth and prosperity The Third Front governments receded in peoplersquos memory Then came the United Progressive Alliance UPA led by the Congress and memories of the Third Front governments became hazier Other than joking about the now feeble or deceased Prime Ministers one can remember little of what happened then But the slot of the profarmer propoor probackward castes was and is lying vacant as the BJP and the Congress are ironically seen as being prorich and proindustry The currently forgotten United National Progressive Alliance or third front of ten regional parties created in 2008 and again in 2009 consisting of the Left Front BSP BJD TDP AIADMK and JDS is stirring It consists of egotistical leaders who are all Prime Minister candidates nothing less So what has spurred all this nightmarish realignment once again It is because of the ostrich like behaviour of the national parties the Congress and the BJP The infighting in the BJP is now out in the open The Delhi4 comprising of Sushma Swaraj Arun Jaitley Rajnath Singh and Venkaiah Naidu see party chief Nitin Gadkari as a bumbling misfit who has delivered a dud in the recent assembly elections mismanaged in Karnataka and Rajasthan and should be shown the door But when it comes to a consensus on who could lead the party in 2014 there is no meeting of minds The rank and file in the party is tilting towards Narendra Modi but that could lead to a break up of the NDA In such a scenario the consensus candidate could only be L K Advani Within the Congress too there are many who would be comfortable with the prospect of an incomplete term of a Congress backed Third Front government in 2014 so that they could return with Rahul Gandhi with a clear majority This is the khichdi which appears to be cooking these daysu00a0 Smita Prakash is Editor News at Asian News International You can follow her on twitter smitaprakash