The Hindu

BANGALORE, Mar 11: The former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda is optimistic that the proposed Third Front will grow in strength in the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections.

Participating in a function to admit a clutch of Bharatiya Janata Party, Congress and Bahujan Samaj Party activists into the Janata Dal (Secular) fold here on Tuesday, Mr. Gowda said the BJP was losing its alliance partners while the Congress too was finding that its allies were now charting their own political course. “Several political changes are bound to take place in the country up till the last date for filing of nominations for the elections. I can’t predict their final shape,” he said.

The campaign of the proposed Third Front, which is expected to be formally launched at a function at Dobbespet in Bangalore Rural district, 45 km from here, on Thursday, will gain momentum in the coming days, Mr. Gowda said.

With the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance and the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance failing to solve the problems faced by the people, the proposed Third Front would come out with a manifesto that empathised with people who had suffered injustice for long, he said.

By March 30 the Third Front would come out with a national programme focussing on the problems faced by the people of the country. “The programme will essentially focus on national issues, while regional issues, including inter-State disputes, will have to be solved by local players,” he said.

Criticising the Vision 2020 document formulated by the former President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam as one that “does not serve any purpose”, Mr. Gowda said any programme should meet the basic needs of the people. The strength of India’s democracy did not lie only in the country’s capacity to launch a moon mission, but in providing its people with basic requirements.

Mr. Gowda also sought to make it clear that his efforts to form the Third Front were not for power or position. “Anybody can become the Prime Minister. During my 10-month tenure as Prime Minister, I have seen the problems faced by the people. My only concern is to find ways and means to solve the problems,” he said.