Kerala’s LDF may just be giving shape to a national third front

The ruling CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front’s overtures to current and former constituents of the rival Congress-led bloc could be part of a larger, grander design having a national subtext, say political observers.

The LDF has already set tongues wagging with its intriguing move to warm up to the Kerala Congress (Mani) after the party’s supremo KM Mani ejected out of the UDF, citing concerted attempts to discredit him and dislodge the KC(M) from its traditional bastions in Central Travancore. The inference is that the LDF is slowly waking up to the prospect of revamping the third front locally through a well-orchestrated exercise of horizontal expansion and consolidation.

CPI(M) State Secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan has gone to the extent of offering issue-based support to Mani, who quit his 35-year membership of the UDF.

In normal times, the LDF would not even want to touch Mani’s party even with a barge pole, since it has always depicted him as the embodiment of corruption and nepotism, and successfully campaigned for his ouster from the erstwhile Oommen Chandy ministry following the bar bribery case.

But times may be changing, as evidenced by Balakrishnan’s overture not just towards Mani, but also ‘like-minded’ partners in the UDF, especially the Janata Dal (United) [JD(U)] and the Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP).

Both parties, erstwhile members of the LDF, had chosen to align with the UDF to suit election-time exigencies and convenience.

But they drew a blank in the recent Assembly elections, even as the larger UDF bit the dust.

Smarting under the electoral setback, the JDU and the RSP have been openly discussing an ‘honourable return’ to the LDF.

This is what seems to have prompted Kodiyeri’s declaration to mediapersons here on Tuesday that they too are welcome back.

What emerges, according to observers, is a well thought-out plan to broadbase the LDF at the State level ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. The idea is to reduce the UDF to no more than a rump, and leave the State unit of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) little choice to form electoral alliances.

They also recall CPI(M) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury’s statement that what is good for Kerala should work even better at the national level when it comes to making a fresh case for building a ‘viable’ third front. Should this happen, the analysts say the Congress may also be forced to tag along to put up a stiff challenge to the NDA in many States in time for next general elections.