Indias communists and several other regional parties have come together to launch a “third front” in the countrys politics, BBC online reports Thursday.
The group is meant to be an alternative to the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) – the two main players in the forthcoming general elections, to be held in five phases over April and May.
Polling to elect a new Lok Sabha (lower house) will run from 16 April to 13 May. Counting is due on 16 May. Nearly four million officials will conduct the elections and 714 million voters are eligible to cast ballots.
The incumbent Congress party-led coalition and parties led by the Hindu nationalist BJP are the main contenders for power.
The “third front” was launched at a massive rally in the town of Tumkur in the southern state of Karnataka. Former prime minister HD Deve Gowda, the driving force behind the new group, called upon the people to vote for a “democratic and secular” government in the elections.
Speakers at the rally said both the Congress and the BJP-led alliances had failed to address people’s grievances.
The launch was attended by senior leaders from Janata Dal (Secular) party, CPI(M), Communist Party of India (CPI), Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP), Forward Bloc (FB), Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS).
In the last few years, the influence of smaller regional parties has been consistently growing. Observers say the two main parties realise that going it alone will not get them far and frantic negotiations have been taking place for months as different political factions manoeuvre for position.
