Congress sees multiple plots in K Chandrashekara Rao’s third front move
, ET Bureau|
Mar 07, 2018, 09.02 AM IST
NEW DELHI: The Congress sees multiple plots in Telangana Rashtriya Samiti leader K Chandrashekara Rao’s attempt to build a third front, including the ‘hidden hand of BJP’ to ‘divide the anti-BJP opposition’. Rao had recently announced a decision to push for a non-BJP, non-Congress Third Front-like consortium of regional parties in the run up to the next Lok Sabha polls.
Congress leaders feel this is aimed at countering the Congress-anchored efforts at propping up an anti-BJP grand alliance besides placing hurdles in the party’s efforts to prop up Rahul Gandhi as the leader of the proposed alliance. In this backdrop, Sonia Gandhi has called a dinner meeting of Opposition leaders next week to firm up their bonding.
The Congress also sees a definite pattern in the choice of regional leaders whom the Telangana chief minister and his emissaries reached out to with the third front’ proposal. Leaders such as Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee and BJD led by Navin Patnaik are known to resent Congress from reestablishing itself in their respective states, besides being adept at keeping post-poll options open. Banerjee is also reluctant to accept Rahul Gandhi as the Opposition’s face against the Modi regime in the next polls. Her enthusiasm for the front also complicates the Left’s position, especially Prakash Karat’s reservation to a CPMCongress tactical tango against BJP.
“Any move to divide secular parties will only help the BJP to break the unity of Opposition parties ahead of the polls”, said Congress MP Deepender Singh Hooda. Congress leaders also feel Rao is also using the third front plank to project himself as the leader of a non-BJP, non-Congress front to appeal to his electorate and divert their focus from the incumbency burden of his state government, with elections just a year away. The perceived image of TRS as a ‘BJP-friendly party’ which has turfrivalry with Congress makes AICC suspects BJP’s ‘hidden hand’ in the move.
BJD, an original player in the third front politics was cautious. “We welcome the concept of a federal front for which BJD always stood, as we always keep equi-distance from BJP and Congress. But, we have to see how the idea is concretized at the national level,” said BJD MP Bhartruhari Mahtab.
Many feel the TRS will eventually reach out to SP and BSP, crucial to Congress’ anti-BJP grand alliance plan for the next LS polls. However, many feel the absence of a Janata Dal-like interstate thread, the inability of the regional parties to supplement votes, state to state, and clashing ambitions of the regional satraps would make it difficult for the third front to succeed.
As a seemingly invincible Vajpayee government lost to a grand alliance of secular parties in 2004, BJP and its central government can be expected to deploy all methods to try and scuttle the repeat of such an alliance in 2019,” said a senior AICC functionary.
Congress leaders feel this is aimed at countering the Congress-anchored efforts at propping up an anti-BJP grand alliance besides placing hurdles in the party’s efforts to prop up Rahul Gandhi as the leader of the proposed alliance. In this backdrop, Sonia Gandhi has called a dinner meeting of Opposition leaders next week to firm up their bonding.
The Congress also sees a definite pattern in the choice of regional leaders whom the Telangana chief minister and his emissaries reached out to with the third front’ proposal. Leaders such as Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee and BJD led by Navin Patnaik are known to resent Congress from reestablishing itself in their respective states, besides being adept at keeping post-poll options open. Banerjee is also reluctant to accept Rahul Gandhi as the Opposition’s face against the Modi regime in the next polls. Her enthusiasm for the front also complicates the Left’s position, especially Prakash Karat’s reservation to a CPMCongress tactical tango against BJP.
“Any move to divide secular parties will only help the BJP to break the unity of Opposition parties ahead of the polls”, said Congress MP Deepender Singh Hooda. Congress leaders also feel Rao is also using the third front plank to project himself as the leader of a non-BJP, non-Congress front to appeal to his electorate and divert their focus from the incumbency burden of his state government, with elections just a year away. The perceived image of TRS as a ‘BJP-friendly party’ which has turfrivalry with Congress makes AICC suspects BJP’s ‘hidden hand’ in the move.
BJD, an original player in the third front politics was cautious. “We welcome the concept of a federal front for which BJD always stood, as we always keep equi-distance from BJP and Congress. But, we have to see how the idea is concretized at the national level,” said BJD MP Bhartruhari Mahtab.
Many feel the TRS will eventually reach out to SP and BSP, crucial to Congress’ anti-BJP grand alliance plan for the next LS polls. However, many feel the absence of a Janata Dal-like interstate thread, the inability of the regional parties to supplement votes, state to state, and clashing ambitions of the regional satraps would make it difficult for the third front to succeed.
As a seemingly invincible Vajpayee government lost to a grand alliance of secular parties in 2004, BJP and its central government can be expected to deploy all methods to try and scuttle the repeat of such an alliance in 2019,” said a senior AICC functionary.
