Mamata moots third front

• Bihar CM Nitish Kumar mulls pullout from NDA
• Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik amenable to the Federal Front
• Advani steps in to keep Bihar alliance intact as political equations change

Anita Saluja New Delhi: Janata Dal (United) leader and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is mulling pullout from the NDA in the wake of the elevation of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi as BJP Campaign Committee Chairman.

Buoyed by the development, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has mooted a Third Front, which seemed to gain momentum. She spoke to her counterparts Naveen Patnaik of Odisha and Nitish Kumar of Bihar and both seemed to be open to her idea. Unveiling her grand plan, Mamata is proposing the coming together of non-Congress, non-BJP and regional parties to form the Federal Front. In a related development, Patnaik raised his pitch for Special Category Status for Odisha, close on the heels of similar demand by JD (U) for Bihar. Patnaik, who staged the Swabhiman rally at the Ramlila Maidan in the Capital to forcefully articulate his demand, is also looking for a non-BJP and non-Congress alternative at the Centre, making a common cause with other parties inclined to work for the Third Front. Significantly, Nitish Kumar deputed JD (U) General Secretary K C Tyagi to meet Mamata in Kolkata. After her meeting with Tyagi, she said, "Nitishji is in agreement that it would be good if we come together and form a Federal Front. We will all talk with regional parties in different States." This is being seen as direct fallout of the ascendancy of Modi in the BJP, which even prompted Advani to tender his resignation, though he withdrew it subsequently. Ironically, Modi's elevation and his growing clout in the BJP is pushing Nitish Kumar into a corner, forcing him to consider parting ways with the saffron party. Else, he would risk losing out on his support-base among Muslims, who could shift en masse to the RJD of Lalu Prasad Yadav. With an eye on the Muslim vote bank in Bihar, Nitish in the past had demanded that Modi should keep off from campaigning in Bihar. Modi, as BJP Campaign Committee Chairman, is bound to stir the hornet's nest in Bihar. Advani stepped in to speak to Nitish Kumar and Sharad Yadav, trying to explain that it is a winning alliance in Bihar and the two parties should contest the next Lok Sabha polls together. Modi's growing stranglehold on the BJP is making Nitish uneasy, as it could hurt his Muslim vote bank in Bihar. According to political observers, Nitish Kumar moved closer to BJP as the upper-caste vote it brought, along with the non-Yadav OBCs represented by him, helped the alliance to dislodge the RJD of Lalu Prasad Yadav in Bihar. It has also won two Assembly elections in Bihar.