Third Front Formation: Are Mamata Banerjee and K Chandrashekhar Rao living in cuckoo land?

Currently, there is a saffron surge in India as Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is ruling in 22 states and is in a very strong position at the centre. Who will snap BJP’s winning streak? Is Congress becoming irrelevant and a spent force? What will happen in 2019?

Indian public and politicians love to speculate and form theories without any proof or credibility and invariably they put their big foot in the mouth and become a big laughing spectacle. Now, we have the honourable chief minister of India’s 29th state i.e. Telangana K Chandrashekhar Rao coming up with a masterstroke that all like-minded regional parties should unite to take on two big national parties in Congress and BJP. It’s a noble idea, but it should be put in the trash and I will come to reasons for it. Rao’s grand plan can never succeed where there is a direct contest between the grand old party and BJP in states (Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Haryana, Gujarat, Karnataka etc), and not all regional parties are on a strong wicket currently.

To form a government in the Indian Republic you need 272 MPs in your side and how will these so-called regional satraps attain that magical figure, and if they somehow reach there (highly unlikely) then who will become the Prime Minister of India? Telangana has 17 Lok Sabha seats and it’s a very minute figure in Lok Sabha equations.

The regional parties are claiming that people are fed up with national parties and they want a change. But, how can KCR work alongside his arch-rival Chandrababu Naidu, how will Akhilesh Yadav and Mayawati find a common ground, how can CPM and TMC agree on same things, how will AIADMK, DMK unite, who can patch things up between Lalu Prasad Yadav and Nitish Kumar? The problem with the third front is that all regional leaders are opportunistic and self-centred and coming up with one agenda will be mighty hard and difficult.

During 1996-1998, India had three head of governments in Inder Kumar Gujral, HD Deve Gowda and Atal Bihari Vajpayee and the country suffered a great deal with frequent change at the Centre. When Narendra Modi became PM in 2014, it was the first time since 1984 (Rajiv Gandhi of Congress) that one party had an absolute majority and there were no coalition or alliances. KCR has every right to dream and think that by sweeping Telangana (anti-incumbency is quite strong) he can govern India and become India’s 15th prime minister, but we live in a practical and a real world and this event is highly improbable and impossible as well.

India is going through a lot of turmoil and chaos and people are fed up with jumlas and false promises. PM Modi is feeling the pinch but knows that his principal opponent is Rahul Gandhi so he can relax and take it easy. If BJP has to lose power then all opposition parties have to come together and it will not happen because of ego and narrow-mindedness. Mamata Banerjee and K Chandrashekhar Rao are enjoying their 15 minutes of fame, but conquering red fort will remain a dream and should ideally be worried about their own states before having ambitions of going to Delhi.

Narendra Modi is an intelligent politician and he will change the rules of the game before 2019 general elections. And, if KCR becomes prime minister, then China will become democratic and sovereign and Asaduddin Owaisi will chant ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’ at RSS shakha.