A New Era for Indian Politics

9 political parties came together today to form the Third Front, positioning themselves as an alternative to the UPA and NDA, the Congress and BJP led alliances respectively. In doing so, the Left Front, along with major regional parties like AIADMK and BSP seem to have initiated a new era for Indian politics, one removed from the two national party based alliances of the past.

While India has had coalition governments for a long time now, a viable third alternative to the UPA and NDA is something quite momentous. A Third Front formed the government briefly after the 1996 elections, but its political capital was meager and chances of survival rather low. With the current mix though, it is a whole different story and Indian politics are likely to be altered for a long time to come.

Not only do people believe a Third Front will take away a number of votes from the two major alliances, but there is serious talk of the Third Front actually having the numbers to come to power. This is still an unlikely scenario with the current group of parties, but with a few more choice allies, things could turn decisively.

They will be very strong in UP(80 seats) with the BSP. They will get more than a decent share of seats in both Andhra (42) with the TDP and Telengana Rashtra Samithi and Tamil Nadu (39) with the AIADMK. In the 62 seats up for grabs between the two Communist bastions Kerala(20) and West Bengal(42) it is safe to assume another 45 seats for the two Left Parties. With the JD(S) in Karnataka, and if they can lure the BJD in Orissa(21) and possibly the NCP in Maharashtra (48), they would be competing in a serious way in all populous states with the exception of Bihar.

This is an unprecedented situation in Indian politics and one that is sure to lead to a number of exciting scenarios on counting day and during the formation of government. While it is still up to the Third Front to decide on a Prime Ministerial candidate (a decision that will give it even more legitimacy), the numbers look encouraging for them in several ways. Indian politics just became an even bigger mess!