New Delhi: Traces of a Third Front emerged yesterday in time for the 2014 general election as 14 parties from across India shared a dais here and vowed to combat the threat of communalism.
The gathering, convened by Left parties, brought together Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav as well as representatives of the AIADMK, Biju Janata Dal (BJD) and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).
Although there was no formal talk of a Third Front to take on both the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the 14 parties resolved to preserve communal amity.
The communal riots in Muzaffarnagar in Uttar Pradesh in September which left around 50 people dead and rendered 43,000 homeless were the trigger for the meet. A resolution passed at the convention accused communal forces of “again seeking to ... create communal tensions” ahead of the Lok Sabha election due next year.
A clear hint about a possible Third Front was given by Nitish Kumar, who said that his Janata Dal-United (JD-U) and other parties should ponder how to mobilise “democratic forces” to defeat “communal forces”.
“There is no new front here but we will have to think how the democratic forces can be united based on issues,” he said. “One hundred percent unity will not be possible but we must explore whatever is practical and possible,” he said.
IANS
