The Left is not ready to become part of any Third Front, although it has decided to launch “joint struggles” with the United National Progressive Alliance (UNPA). This was the conclusion of the two separate meetings held between UNPA and senior Left leaders on Thursday.

UNPA Chairperson Mulayam Singh Yadav and Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh called on CPI General Secretary AB Bardhan and CPI(M) General Secretary Prakash Karat during the day. Apart from floor coordination in the Winter next session of Parliament, the two sides discussed the basic framework for their cooperation.

As per the understanding reached between them, the UNPA will take part in CPI’s Kisan Rally in New Delhi on October 30, while Left leaders will participate in UNPA’s rally in Vijaywada on November 24.

Left leaders were learnt to have turned down the idea of a Third Front at this stage, saying that such a Front had to evolve from joint struggles for common causes. At a meeting with TDP leader Chandrababu Naidu on Wednesday, Bardhan was learnt to have expressed similar views asking the UNPA to take a cue from the Left’s stand on economic policies. At Thursday’s meeting between the UNPA and the Left leaders, they decided not to press for voting on Indo-US nuclear deal. They would rather have a debate to get a “sense of the House”.

Although it was Prakash Karat who had floated the idea of a Third Front, the Left maintained that such a Front should not be “an opportunistic alliance”.