India ruling Congress slams left ally's "third front"

INDIA, India's ruling Congress party warned a decision by its communist coalition ally to seek a new political grouping ahead of a likely general election next year could open the way to victory for opposition Hindu nationalists.

India's largest communist party, which shores up Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's coalition, said at the weekend it would seek a "third alternative" to challenge India's two mainstream national parties, Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

"Whenever secular forces were divided in the past, it helped the fundamentalist forces to occupy the political centre stage," Congress party spokesman Jayanthi Natarajan was quoted as saying in the Times of India.

New Delhi, Tuesday, Reuters