By IANS,
New Delhi: A Third Front, which is still in the making, will focus on policies and not on a leader, Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) leader Sitaram Yechury said in the national capital Saturday.
He added, however, that an alliance is likely to be formed only after the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.
“In the post-emergency era, all alliances have been formed after election results,” Yechury said at an interaction with women journalists at the Indian Women Press Corps (IWPC).
“An alternate policy trajectory is required to change the situation in the country, and there is very little to choose between the Congress and BJP. People want a government which will give them relief,” he said.
“Neither the Congress nor the BJP has any alternative to offer, so we are trying to work out some common front,” he said.
“Our motto is “neta nahin, niti nai” (new policy, not leader),” said Yechury.
Traces of a Third Front could be seen when 14 parties shared the dais in the capital in October this year, and vowed to fight the “threat of communalism” at a gathering organised by the Left parties. But doubts over its long term viability persist.
The Oct 30 gathering in Delhi brought together diverse parties like the Janata Dal-United, represented by both Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and party chief Sharad Yadav, Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav as well as representatives of the AIADMK, Biju Janata Dal (BJD) and UPA ally Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).
Yechury, however, did not rule out some of the parties backing out.
“Regional parties have taken an opportunistic stand in the past, one cannot say they will not do so in future,” he said.
Yechury also said that the credit of most rights bills passed by the UPA goes to the Left parties.
“The rights based approach of UPA-1 was because of the Left parties. The Right to Information, Right to Education, forest dwellers rights, all were part of the common minimum programme of the alliance,” he said.
“UPA-2 is directionless,” he added.