Political heavy weights holding hands high in a wave of unity, the camaraderie against a common enemy, the passing of a resolution and the full-throated slogan from the enthusiastic crowd hailing the “teesra morcha” , all these set the grand platform for a dramatic announcement.

Yet, the leaders stopped short of launching the Third Front.

The Left Front succeeded in bringing 14 political parties together, that account for about 100 seats in the current Lok Sabha, on a common platform against communalism in the backdrop of the Muzaffarnagar riots at a convention here on Wednesday.

Hugs, handshakes

While the gathering of the disparate parties could create an atmosphere conducive for the emergence of a third alternative, the leaders were contended with hugs, handshakes and speeches, signalling the possibility of only a post-poll coalition of convenience.

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, Samajwadi Party leader Mulayam Singh Yadav, ruling UPA’s partner NCP, representatives of AIADMK and BJD, the four Left parties and a couple of smaller parties made the non-Congress, non-BJP meet impressive. But another set of regional parties like RJD, LJP, BSP and DMK got left out as their political opponents were part of this group.

Veiled attack

Mulayam Singh Yadav, in a thinly veiled attack against the Sangh Parivar, said that there were attempts to engineer riots in Uttar Pradesh for a long time and finally it happened in Muzaffarnagar.

He claimed that Vishwa Hindu Parishad’s proposed one-month long parikrama programme at Ayodhya was meant to create communal tension and trouble.

“We succeeded in stopping riots at many places, but it did finally happen in Muzaffarnagar,” Mulayam said.

CPI(M) General Secretary Prakash Karat pointed out that there were communal incidents in Jammu, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh and blamed the RSS for vitiating the political atmosphere before the Parliamentary polls.

Sardar praised

He asked why the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi can’t call himself a nationalist instead of terming himself a “Hindu nationalist.” Former CPI General Secretary A.B. Bardhan attacked Modi over his controversial remarks about Sardar Patel.

He said that Sardar Patel had called RSS “mad” for terming the country a “Hindu nation”, and that Patel had blamed the RSS for spreading the communal venom.

“Patel banned the RSS and he lifted the ban on the RSS only after Golwalkar assured him that the RSS will not play a political role.

“But now the RSS is issuing political orders on who should be a prime ministerial candidate,” said Bardhan.

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