The unviability of a Third Front

As BJP’s chance of coming back to power is getting brighter & brighter the prospects of a Third Front government has gone like a puff of smoke. If opinion polls are to be believed, BJP & its allies are going to get anywhere between 200 to 220 seats & with this kind of numbers finding allies would not be a problem at all. Therefore, the question in one’s mind is why a strong third front has not emerged even though there is ample space for it in Indian politics.After all people are tried of voting congress & BJP whose policies are more or less the same. First & foremost, there has never been a genuine Third Front in Indian politics. The so called Third Front governments which  had  brief stints earlier came to power  either with support of congress or the BJP.The  Janata Party which came to power in 1977 was a grand coalition of disgruntled elements in the congress at that time ,Jan Sangh  & others. Charan Singh  toppled the government with the support of the congress&succeeded it. Charan Singh could not prove his majority in the parliament & headed one of the most short-lived governments in the history of the country. In 1989, V.P.Singh government came to power with support of BJP & the Left .It fell after 11 months when BJP pulled its plug. Chandra Shekhar who missed the chance of becoming the Prime Minister a couple of times  earlier & whose only ambition in life was to sit at the PM’s chair even it was  for a day  formed the government with congress support. The government fell within 40 days when Congress withdrew its support on a lame excuse that Rajiv Gandhi was being spied on by the CID. The Third front got another shot in power when the 13-day Vajpayee government fell in 1996.The then Karnataka Chief Minister Deve Gowda headed the government after V.P.Singh refused & CPI(M) denied Jyoti Basu the chance to head the government. Soon Sitaram Kesri the then Congress who got tired of Gowda showed him the door & replaced him with I.K.Gujral.Gujral government met the same fate once congress felt that it had outlived its utility. The Third front is a substitute front popped either by the BJP or by Congress to keep the other out of power. The constituents of the Third front with the exception of left parties do not present an alternative vision for the country. The other constituent members of the Third front have in the past aligned with either of the two national parties for their own self-serving reasons. Therefore, the chances of them ditching Left to join either of the two alliances is a possibility no one can rule out. Moreover, with the Left’s chances expanding its base from its strongholds remains weak the chances of a Third alternative remains a pipe dream.