'Policy, not PM candidate, will lead third front'

In order to keep ambitions of regional leaders under control and save the third front from any internal fighting, the CPM has emphasised that the front does not need to project any prime ministerial candidate. The party said that it would be the policy, and not an individual, that would lead its political formation.

In his editorial to the party mouthpiece “People’s Democracy”, senior leader Sitaram Yechury ridiculed the BJP for projecting Narendra Modi as its prime ministerial candidate and referred to how third front parties did not project any candidates for the position of prime minister.

“Alternative policy trajectory will be their leader and not any individual that would be their future prime ministerial candidate as being tom-tommed, for instance, by the BJP,” he has said.

Obviously sensing the possibility of a fierce fight over projecting a prime ministerial candidate, the CPM is trying to shelve the issue till the election results are out. AIADMK leader Jayalalitha has already thrown her hat into the ring through a resolution by her party. Another strong contender, Mulayam Singh, has been averse to any pre-poll alliance as he wants to keep his options open.

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, too, is well known to be nurturing prime ministerial ambitions which could not have been fulfilled by staying in NDA.

The Left, which is the main architect of the anti-BJP, anti-Congress front, is well aware of the difficulty involved in projecting a prime ministerial candidate as there are too many contenders.

Rationalising the logic behind postponing such a projection, Yechury is “keeping in mind the historical experience of coalitional governments in India in the last few decades, when on every occasion a government was formed on the basis of a front that only emerged post-elections”.

“The current political churning in the country must take a direction of an alternate policy trajectory in the interests of both our Republic’s secular, democratic foundations and for creating a better livelihood for our people,” he said.