.. The Third Front may be fragmented today but it's too early to write it off because the ground-level conditions for it have not vanished. The idea is alive. National parties have to talk in terms of coalitions and fronts ... The last few governments we have had are coalitions or fronts of some sort. But there's an inherent contradiction in these fronts because the regional parties cannot give up their state base while the national partner wants to carve and extend its base in that state. At some stage, the tensions will give way and at that juncture the Third Front formation dynamics can start.

This may be valid some three-four years later. Or even a year from now ... Many regional parties and social justice forces have got absorbed into the BJP or Congress. Survival is a dominant factor and it determines the behaviour or individuals and parties. You apply this to any Third Front constituent and it explains that behaviour. TDP is saying what option did we have but to be with BJP, Karunanidhi is saying it; Sharad Yadav, Ram Vilas Paswan, Mulayam Singh are functioning on the same logic. I believe there's a large section of people who want an alternative to Congress and BJP. So long as it's there, the potential for a Third Front is there too. I will not write off the Third Front now ...