New Delhi:
The Third Front expects substantial number of seats in the Lok Sabha polls and would not play second fiddle to the Congress in government formation, a top Left leader said on Wednesday.
CPI General Secretary A B Bardhan said that after the results are out on May 16, the Third Front would get "more numbers" and "will tell the President that we must be given a chance".
Emerging from a meeting with his CPM counterpart Prakash Karat in New Delhi, he asserted that the Third Front was "totally intact" and the TRS joining the NDA would have no impact, even in Andhra Pradesh.
The meeting, which was also attended by Forward Bloc General Secretary Debabrata Biswas, was called on short notice to discuss the post-poll scenario and firm up a schedule of meetings of the Left and Third Front partners.
Asked about the meeting between JD(S) leader H D Kumaraswamy and Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday evening, Bardhan said the Karnataka leader had said himself that he was with the Third Front.
"JD(S) has not gone (out of the Front)," he said in response to repeated questions about the meeting.