New Delhi:
The CPM virtually wrote the obituary of the Third Front saying the defeat of the Left in its strongholds and the failure of the alliance in Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu undermined any effective presence of the grouping at the national level.
CPM General Secretary Prakash Karat, who spearheaded the efforts to forge the Third Front, said on Thursday that his party and the CPI had an electoral understanding with some of the non-
Congress, non-BJP parties in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Orissa and seat adjustments in Karnataka.
"On the basis of these state level understandings forged on the eve of the elections, we attempted to project them as a national level non-Congress, non-BJP alternative.
"The defeat of the Left in West Bengal and Kerala and the failure of the alliance in Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu to win a majority of the seats undermined any effective presence of the 'Third Front' at the national level," Karat said in an article in party mouthpiece People's Democracy.
He said it was evident that such a combination which had its relevance in the states concerned was "not a credible and viable alternative at the national level".
Karat was of the view that the electoral combinations forged state wise "precluded any national policy platform being projected".