Gowda Iterates Support for Third Front
Former Prime Minister and JD(S) chief HD Deve Gowda on Wednesday attempted to quell speculation of his party weighing prospects of defecting to the Congress-led UPA after results to the Lok Sabha polls start to come in on May 16 and reiterated support for the Third Front.
“JD(S) is firmly with the Third Front. We have an important role to play in government formation,” Deve Gowda said at a press conference in Bangalore.
He said that too much should not be read into his son, HD Kumaraswamy’s meeting with Congress president late on Tuesday as he had met Sonia Gandhi as former chief minister of Karnataka.
Kumaraswamy’s meeting with Gandhi was largely viewed as an indication of cracks in the Third Front. But Gowda said that the The non-Congress, non-BJP alliance was intact and iterated, “There is no rift in JD(S) and it’s still the pillar of the Third Front.”
Amid a fast intensifying search for allies the longevity of Gowda’s statements were still being held suspect by the politically astute. Especially as the JD(S) leadership was well aware of the controversy the Kumaraswamy-Sonia meet would trigger.
The former prime minister, however, maintained that government formation was not possible at the Centre without the Third Front.
