Third Front attempt a mistake, says Bardhan

Following its failure to strike a poll deal with the AIADMK, CPI has described the attempt to forge a Third Front before elections a mistake saying the regional parties were always keener to increase their seats.

CPI general secretary A B Bardhan, however, is hopeful that the Third Front would emerge after the elections.

As the Third Front would comprise mostly of the regional parties, he minced no words in admitting the Left should have avoided going into seat sharing talks with them.

“We need not have gone on trying to work out adjustments with all regional parties. That we need not have tried. Because some of the regional parties wanted to maximise their seats and they were not willing to concede any seat to the Left," he said. 

"Such a Front can come about only after the elections," Bardhan said in an interview on a telivision  channel.

Asked whether he would accept that the attempt to work out arrangements with regional parties was a mistake, Bardhan said, "All the regional parties, was a mistake." He, however, said it was not such an "embarrassing failure" of the Left Front. "It is difficult to put it together before the elections, because a third front can come about only with a non Congress, non BJP parties. Mostly these are regional parties," he said.

Bardhan also admitted that he was "disappointed" with Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalitha's behaviour and felt "slighted" by her offer of only one seat to the CPI in the state, as he repeatedly pointed out that Jayalalitha was the one who approached the Left Parties and announced the alliance.