Antony plays down role of Third Front in national politics

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, JUNE 22: CWC member and Opposition Leader A K Antony said yesterday that the Third Front had no significance in natio...

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, JUNE 22: CWC member and Opposition Leader A K Antony said yesterday that the Third Front had no significance in national politics and added that after the polls, it would either be a Congress-led Government or one headed by the BJP at the Centre.

Addressing a special convention of party workers organised by DCC here, Antony said that it was impossible for the proposed Third Front to carve out a political space and become an alternative to the Congress and BJP. 8220;The CPM national leadership has decided that there is no need to maintain equidistance from the Congress and BJP. But party leaders in Kerala are still not ready to accept this. That is rather unfortunate,8221; he said.

8220;The Chief Minister and the CPM State secretary say that there is no discarding the Kerala line. The party wants seats at any cost and is prepared for any compromise. That is the situation in which the polls are going to be fought,8221; Antony said.

Referring to the Kargil issue, the CWC member said that it was not time for post-mortems. 8220;But a time will surely come for that. Infiltration started in January, but the Government came to know about it only in May. The Defence Minister will surely have some answering to do. But now, it is time for standing united sic.8221;

National politics will not have any bearing on the results of the polls in the State as the fight is with the CPM, Karunakaran said. The Chief Minister is hallucinating if he thinks that the LDF will win more seats this time, he said.

Sharad Pawar would not create much of an impact in Maharashtra and will not be a factor in the other States, Karunakaran said. It will be a Congress-led Government at the Centre after the polls, with Sonia Gandhi at the helm.

KPCC president Thennala Balakrishna Pillai and Vayalar Ravi were among those who spoke. G Karthikeyan, M M Hassan, Thalekunnil Basheer, Palode Ravi, Thamapanoor Ravi, Cherian Philip, Sundaran Nadar and Varkala Kahar were among those present.

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Interestingly, the Opposition leader chose to respond to a comment by DCC secretary Solomon Alex that there should be a review of programmes taken up by the party after the new office-bearers took over.

8220;Those who have a hectic schedule should step aside for those who would be able to devote more time. Committees which are not functioning properly should resign or be disbanded,8221; Antony said.

The KPCC president said that the KPCC executive meeting to be held today would discuss the issue.