The informal third front, a loose amalgam of various separatist and militant groups and individuals, which is in touch with New Delhi’s interlocutors is said to have argued that the Assembly polls should be delinked from the peace process. And, therefore, elections scheduled for later this year should be deferred at least until March.

Sources said the PM’s Kashmir pointman, A S Dullat, is working to involve more separatist groups and leaders into the front.

Although this front is yet to get an organisational structure, it already includes separatist leader Shabir Shah, various factions of his Peoples Conference—a constituent of the Hurriyat—a group of former militant commanders and even a few second-rung Hurriyat leaders. Sources say that expelled Hizbul Mujahideen commander Abdul Majeed Dar is also part of this latest front.

Dullat and former Union Law Minister Ram Jethmalani had held talks with leaders of this ‘‘third front’’ for more than a week which was followed by another round of talks in Delhi last week.

Sources in the front reveal that the Centre’s Track 2 channels had first focussed on getting the separatists to contest the elections, which did not work.

‘‘We believe that free and fair elections cannot exclusively resolve the problems. It could, in fact, complicate the situation at this point of time. We want them the Centre to delink the polls issue from the peace process. We have been pressing for a delay in the polls by at least six months to ensure a serious work on various proposals which are making rounds at the Track 2 level,’’ a leader said.

‘‘We told them the Centre that a free and fair poll could backfire as the Hurriyat and the senior separatist leadership are not inclined to participate,’’ he said. The third front’s leadership hopes that Vajpayee will visit Kashmir any time before July 15 and talk peace, even announce a major political step forward.

‘‘We know that the Centre wants to accommodate the National Conference in its scheme of things. They cannot dismiss the Farooq Abdullah government which we believe is a major hurdle. The only alternative is to delay the conduct of polls and put the state under direct rule from Delhi,’’ said the third front leader. There are indications that the Centre isn’t averse to the deferment demand. One reason is logistics. September is not an ideal time for polls because the current dip in infiltration will start showing positive results on the ground only after winter. The Amarnath yatra is on till mid-August which will call for major security deployment.

The Third Front’s proposal is weaved around discusions at a Ford Foundation-sponsored April seminar in Chandigarh where a separatist leader G M Naiku floated the idea of ‘‘freezing Kashmir dispute for a mutually decided time frame followed by a direct dialogue and reconciliation effort between India and Pakistan, de-escalation on the borders, a dialogue between Kashmiri separatist leadership and New Delhi, an intra-Kashmir dialogue and opening up of channels of communication with PoKr which means porous borders and a genuine political package for Kashmir.’’