Third Front PM candidate may have to pass 'acceptability test'

It is not just the alliance of the Third Front that is open-ended (so that as many allies as possible can join). Some of the constituents want its prime ministerial candidate’s selection to be an open affair as well.

The choice of the PM would not be based just on the number of MPs a party could muster, a key Left leader said. The aspirant would also have to pass the “acceptability test”, he added.

The subjective clause of being “acceptable to all” is basically a ploy to thwart Bahujan Samaj Party chief and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati’s reported plan of becoming PM. Some of the key constituents have already made it clear at the meetings that the so-called Third Front’s PM aspirant should be selected on the acceptability factor as well.

“The number of seats of a party is, of course, a very important factor. But it is not the sole deciding factor,” CPI General Secretary S Sudhakar Reddy told Business Standard.

Other leaders of this Third Front Bloc point out that if the leader of the biggest constituent is selected as the PM candidate, Mayawati automatically becomes the lead choice, as she is fighting the largest number of seats among the non-BJP, non-Congress parties and is expected to win the highest number of seats.

Officially, none of the Third Front leaders is ready to talk about the issue now and maintain that the PM’s issue will be decided only after the election results come out. The Congress and the BJP, however, have left no opportunity to taunt the Third Front on this contentious issue, knowing full well there are many aspirants for the post of PM in this group.

At a rally in Karnataka recently, Sonia Gandhi took a dig at the Third Front and said, “In that Third Front, there are as many PMs as there are parties.”

The Left, meanwhile, also has an alternative plan ready to keep the BJP out of power. If, after the elections, the Congress’ own tally is larger than the cumulative strength of the Third Front constituents, the Left will support a Congressman for the top slot, under stringent conditions.

A key Third Front leader also points out that they are expecting some more parties to join the bandwagon after the elections. “In that case, everyone’s opinion has to be taken to select a PM,” he said.

Another leader pointed out that V P Singh, HD Deve Gowda, and I K Gujral, the previous Third Front PMs, were appointed through the same “acceptability” route.