Not easy for K Chandrasekhar Rao to stitch a Front

Hyderabad: Telangana state Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who are the front-runners in the formation of a Third Front at national level, will find it difficult to unite non-Congress and non-BJP parties in their home states, leave alone the nation. At present there are two fronts at the national level, the BJP-headed National Democratic Alliance (NDA) made up of 13 political parties, and the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) of 13 political parties.

When the NDA was formed in 1998, it was an alliance of 29 political parties, but now there are only 11. Should the Shiv Sena and the Telugu Desam pull out, that number will be down to nine. At a recent dinner hosted by UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, 17 political parties attended. There are some regional parties which are not in the UPA which also attended the dinner. TRS MP A.P. Jitendar Reddy said that it is not correct to say that all political parties that attended the dinner will support the Congress or the UPA.

According to the Election Commission of India, there are 1,760 political parties in the country. In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections only 464 parties contested. There are six national parties, 48 state recognised parties and 1,706 unrecognised parties. Strong state-level regional parties have joined either the NDA or the UPA. Mr Chandrasekhar Rao wants the third front to be anti-BJP and anti-Congress.

If there are only regional parties in the Front they will be confined to their states and there will be no chance of transfer of votes. For example, if the DMK in Tamil Nadu and TRS in Telangana are in the Third Front, TRS votes cannot be transferred to the DMK and DMK votes cannot be transferred to the TRS. If there is a national party in the Front then the votes will be transferred among the parties if there is seat adjustment. At the moment, though, the Rao-Mamata Third Front is very much up in the air with no clarity on who will join in.