Kolkata:
Defending its proposal for a Federal Front, Trinamool Congress on Saturday said it has relevance in current political scenario as UPA was slipping fast and BJP unable to come up sufficiently to be an alternative.
The party also hit out at the Left for opposing the idea mooted by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
"The idea of a Federal Front is to provide an alternative to the people of the country after the 2014 parliamentary elections," senior Trinamool leader and party MP Sougata Roy told a news agency.
Roy was reacting to CPI leader AB Bardhan's opposition to the Federal Front idea. The CPI veteran had said that such a platform would not neither be feasible nor would it would inspire people's confidence.
"It (the idea) is very relevant in today's politics because the UPA is going down and BJP is not coming up sufficiently," the Trinamool leader said.
"Mr Bardhan is expressing the frustration of the Left as they are now irrelevant in national politics. At this moment, they are not in a dominant position anywhere or in any major state of the country," Roy, a former Union minister, said.
Asked if he thought Left leaders were trying to outdo Mamata by talking to SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav and JD(U) president Sharad Yadav at a time when talks to form a non- Congress, non-BJP alternative were gaining ground, Roy said, "The Left is in no position to outdo Mamata at this stage."
"Mamata is relevant because she is very strong in West Bengal with a large number of MLAs and MPs from the state at her side," Roy said.
Asked whether the proposed Federal Front was mooted with an idea of a pre-electoral adjustment of non-Congress and non-BJP regional parties, Roy said, "An informal pre-election front can take shape with a few common ideas, but it will only be in the post-election scenario that the Federal Front will become really important."
He said parties strong in their own states could come together and raise the question of more powers to the states so that they were not dependent on the Centre's mercy.
"And they can also provide an alternative to the corruption-ridden UPA and Hindutva-promoting BJP. This is the idea with which the Federal Front has been floated," the Trinamool leader said.
The West Bengal Chief Minister has already made the first move by discussing about the 'Front' idea to her Odisha and Bihar counterparts Naveen Patnaik and Nitish Kumar early this week.
