SP, CPI-M, JD-U meet to discuss Third Front

Talks of Third Front gained momentum Thursday after leaders of the Samajwadi Party, CPI-M, and JD-U held a meeting here.

Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) leader Sitaram Yechury told reporters that such a grouping was needed to counter the communal forces.

Standing beside Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Ram Gopal Yadav, Yechury said, "The country has to be saved from communal forces."

In June, the Janata Dal-United (JD-U) parted ways with the Bharatiya Janata Party after Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi was named the party's campaign chief for 2014 polls.

Earlier, SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav had said that a Third Front government would be formed after the 2014 general elections.

"I am in touch with Left leaders, including Prakash Karat and A.B. Bardhan, on such a Front after the elections", Mulayam Singh Yadav had said. Karat is the general secretary of the CPI-M, and Bardhan until recently was the CPI general secretary.

The regional parties are trying to form an alliance with the Left parties for the 2014 national elections, hoping that neither the BJP nor the Congress would get the majority to form the central government.