The Muslims and Dalits of Mumbai seem not to be affected by the UPA government’s schemes for them. With Mumbai Municipal election round the corner they have formed a third front entity ‘Mumbai Vikas Secular Front’ which is born out of all regional, Dalit and local secular political parties, except Raj Thackeray’s Navnirman Sena.
The Third Front say it is set to teach Congress and its ally NCP a lesson that completely ignored the BJP-Shiv Sena coalition’s brutality towards Dalits and Muslims as well as the development of the city.
The Third Front came into direct confrontation with Congress and NCP in a meeting at the Communist Party office at Worli, Mumbai on January 3. The participants of the meeting were representatives of Samajwadi Party, Janata Dal Secular, Republican Party of India (Athawle), CPI, CPI (M), Shetkari Kamgar Paksh, Rashtriya Samajwadi Party, Kunbi Sena, and members of other political groupings.
After the meeting, Abu Asim Azmi, president of the state unit of Samajwadi Party said discussions on seat allotments are going on and then a common Election Manifesto will be released.