The idea of a third front, or a federal front, has got a revival thanks to Mamata Banerjee. While the West Bengal chief minister claims to have already discussed the issue with her Bihar and Odisha counterparts – Nitish Kumar of the JD(U) and Naveen Patnaik of BJD – both the CMs have given enough broad hints about the need to revive a non-Congress, non-BJP front.

While there is nothing wrong with the idea per se – after all, India has been governed by either the Congress of the BJP, or alliances led by them for over 90 percent of the post-independence phase and since there are serious failings on both fronts why not give a proper chance to an alternative – viability of the idea is always open to questions.

In these circumstances, and as the Congress gets embroiled in further corruption and irregularities and the BJP douses the infighting fire, should the regional parties sit down and take stock of the possibilities of an alternative? Is the third front/federal front/regional front a sustainable alternative?