CPI-M leader Prakash Karat announces the formation of the Third Front to fight the Lok Sabha polls as an alternative to the BJP and the Congress.

At the press meeting after heads of 11 parties met today at the Tripura House, Karat announced that the Third Front was formed today and has decided to work together as a bloc and fight the Lok Sabha elections together. The bloc will be a non-BJP, non-Congress party.

Karat said that the BJP's policies are no better than the Congress. "We will work for the defeat of the Congress and the UPA. We will ensure that the BJP and its allies will not be able to come to power at the centre. Therefore, India needs an alternative, which is the Third Front. He said that Narednra Modi is a challenge to the secular fabric of the country.