THIRUVANANTHAPURAM — The ruling Congress party on Saturday hinted at the possibility of the formation of a fresh “secular” front to keep the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) out of power. Congress leader and Union Defense Minister A.K. Antony talked about a new alliance including other parties that are not part of the present United Progressive Alliance (UPA) in order to deny the BJP any opportunity to form the government at the center. Addressing an election meeting in the capital city of Kerala, Antony said that Congress' main rival in Kerala the Communist Party of India (CPM) will have to abandon its opposition to Congress to stave off the risk of BJP retaking the center.” After the elections, several parties which are not ready to join hands with Congress will have to rethink to avoid the danger of bringing BJP to power,” he said at an interaction with reporters. Antony's was not really a friendly appeal for cooperation. In fact, the senior Congress leader, mirroring the ground reality in Kerala where the Congress and the CPM represent the two rival poles, chose a partisan tone. He asserted that the Congress will do better than last time, and even advised the CPM to introspect on the relevance of its “dated ideology” and the need to shed politics of violence. The defense minister also mocked CPM for the failure of the efforts to erect a Third Front while he suggested the Left needed to emerge from ideological silos.
