Temple talk brings ‘third front’ to life

Lok Awaz’s patron is none other than JD(U) leader George Fernandes, and its president is his now trusted lieutenant, Shambhu Shrivastwa; invitees include reform’s poster boy, TDP’s Chandrababu Naidu, Trinamool’s Mamata Bannerjee; SP’s Amar Singh and three-time Lok Sabha MP, Mohan Singh.

INLD’s Om Prakash Chautala had accepted the invite but cannot attend as he is travelling abroad. While invitations were sent to DMK’s Dayanidhi Maran and to Left’s visible faces Sitaram Yechuri, Prakash Karat and D Raja, they have all predictably declined.

The convention is also being held on the day the just anointed BJP president LK Advani will be attending the RSS national executive in Hardwar. The convention, sources said, is the first serious attempt in the UPA government era, to breathe life into the amorphous and dormant Third Front which refuses to die.

‘‘Who can ignore the fact that Third Front, a non-Congress-BJP group comprises almost 250 MPs. While most of this group is affiliated today to either the Congress or BJP on communal-secular lines, the only platform they can come together is on an economic platform, because most of them share similar social and economic concerns,’’ sources said.

The theme is convenient for both pro-and anti-reformists— the inaugural session will be opened by Fernandes and Naidu, who will dwell on an overview on the course of economic reforms in India.

Lok Awaz has astutely avoided calling itself a political group, thus allowing all political parties to come together despite being on the Congress or BJP side. Said a source, ‘‘It is the beginning of the process for the consolidation of the Third Front.’’ However, Shrivastwa defers. ‘‘It is too ambitious a claim…Lok Awaz is not a non-political platform for dialogue and mass action, which will build a network of political forces and representatives of various sectors. It is a forward looking platform, not a negative one.’’