Why Third Front Government Is A Wrong Option For India ?

Political Parties who were always opposed to both Congress and the BJP formed Third Front. The National Front was formed between 1989 and 1991 with coalition of various parties. Janata Dal led the front under the leadership of N. T. Rama Rao.

N. T. Rama Rao

Rama Rao did not choose to become prime minister due to which V. P. Singh had to become the prime minister. The government failed which were alleged with scandals of corruption between some of the parties in the coalition. Implementation of Mandal Commission Reports, which led to a split in Hindu community and alleged anti-development, were other reasons for the failure of the government.

‘After the fall of the National Front government, Chandra Shekhar split the principle party of the National Front. Janata Dal formed a Government with the backing of Rajiv Gandhi’s Congress Party for a short time and was brought down by Gandhi on frivolous charges of spying by Haryana (a state then ruled by Chandrasekhar’s party)’- Source: Wikipedia.org

Bharatiya Janata Party emerged as the largest party with 161 seats in 1996 general elections. With the nationalist, it was invited first to form a government. In merely 13 days Atal Bihari Vajpayee government fell down. The Indian National Congress, with 140 seats along with the CPI(M) agreed to form the government. Janata Dal extended it support form outside. On March 2^nd, ex-prime minister and Janata Dal (Secular)’s H. D. Deve Gowda announced officially the name of Third Front for Lok Sabha elections 2009. It was earlier known as the United Front, which had formed the Government between 1996 and 1998. Led by the Janata Dal their two Prime Ministers were H. D. Deve Gowda and Inder Kumar Gujral. H. D. Deve Gowda was asked to be the Prime Minister. He served his term from June 1, 1996 – April 21, 1997 only. This government did not survive for long as the Sitaram-Kesri led Congress withdrew support 10 months later. Inder Kumar Gujral became Prime Minister after that and he served his term from April 21, 1997 – March 19, 1998. Fresh elections had to be called after the drastic collapse of the government twice.

Third Front

The Third Front, which is now, a biggest challenge to both United Progressive Alliance (UPA) and National Democratic alliance (NDA) is an alliance between the communist parties of Left Front and the regional parties.

Third fronts in the past are known for being “ideologically loose and opportunistic. Third fronts in the past were also known for internal differences within the coalition”- Manjunath Singe (Date of Publication: March 21, 2009) - Source: Mutiny.in

Smaller parties with various political ideologies came together to from a front without any common vision or goal. Neither did they had a leader like Atal Bihari Vajpayee who brought secularity in spite of BJP always known for hardcore ‘Hindutva’ nor did they had leadership like Congress, which still talks about common people’s development.

‘Such fronts consist of parties of somewhat similar clout and size but conflicting ambitions; thus by their very composition they inject instability into the polity. When a Congress or BJP-led coalition government is in the saddle it has far more room to manoeuvre, since it is the large, core party that relies on smaller parties rather than vice versa.’ - Source: IndianExpress.com

I think the Third Front lacks common vision and objective. I think the only goal of the party seems to have a Non-BJP or Non Congress government. Lack of national leader, weak manifesto (as compared to national parties like Congress or BJP), it has always ruined its image in whole country. Though exception of West Bengal with a strong leadership of Jyoti Basu, and small example of Tripura has kept the hope alive, the results of 2009 Lok Sabha election results, the scenario seems to be changing. It is hard to expect a drastic change among the citizens who would elect the Third Front to form a government in next few general elections.