Bangalore, Mar 13 : Ahead of the Lok Sabha General Elections, the Left and some regional parties on Thursday joined hands to cobble up an eight-party Third Front in a bid to form an alternative to the combines led by the Congress and BJP.

The combine spearheaded by JD(S) supremo H D Deve Gowda was launched at a poll rally in Tumkur district in Karnataka. The new Front comprises the Left--CPI-M, CPI, RSP, Forward Bloc, TDP, TRS, JD-S and Bhajan Lal's Haryana Janahit Party.

AIADMK supremo Jayalalithaa and the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister, Ms.Mayawati were not personally present at the rally, but send their senior representatives.

Leaders of the new alliance said both the Congress-led UPA and the BJP-led NDA have failed to address people's grievances and discounted suggestions that some regional parties are coming together on an opportunistic platform.

Describing the get together of all democratic, secular and left parties in the country as historic , CPI(M) General Secretary Prakash Karat said the third force stands for the interests of the vast masses for the firm defence of secularism against communal forces. Former Prime Minister, H.D.Deve Gowda, who hosted the rally, said the force would come out with a national policy document on the basis of which it will seek votes in the coming elections.

TDP leader N Chandrababu Naidu said the Front will have a meeting with Mayawati on Sunday to discuss issues like its prime ministerial candidate.

Meanwhile, the Congress on Thursday described the Third Front as a big illusion of Indian politics but at the same time cautioned that whenever such grouping has resurrected it has only helped the communal forces. Dismissing the claims of the Third Front that it is emerging as an alternative, the party spokesman Mr. Manish Tiwari said that the Front is like a spectre which appears every time in two-three years to show that it is not irrelevant and then disappears.

The BJP, on the other hand said the country faces several challenges and needs a stable government and going by the the earlier experience of Third Front, its re-emergence does not spell good for the country.
The party spokesman Ravi Shankar Prasad said that the Front, which is basically a Left oriented initiative, is an illusion and not any formidable force as it is making out to be.