BJD has agreed to join front, claims Gowda
Political situation in country is “fluid”

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BANGALORE, Mar 13 : The third front, a coalition of the Left parties, the Janata Dal (Secular), the Telugu Desam Party (TDP), the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) and the All-India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK), received a shot in the arm with Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati deciding to send a representative to attend the front’s formal launch at Dobbespet, near Bangalore, on Thursday.

JD(S) supremo and former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda told The Hindu that Ms. Mayawati had agreed to send Satish Mishra, MP, to attend the launch.

Ms. Mayawati decided to depute Mr. Mishra, considered to be the architect of the BSP’s social engineering in Uttar Pradesh, after Mr. Gowda spoke to her over telephone. The BSP’s decision to share the platform with the third front assumes immense political significance in the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections.

Mr. Gowda also claimed that the Biju Janata Dal (BJD), which has parted ways with the Bharatiya Janata Party in Orissa, had also agreed to become a part of the third front. However, the BJD was unable to participate in the launch in view of certain developments in Bhubaneswar after Chief Minister Biju Patnaik won the confidence vote. Mr. Gowda said the political situation in the country was “fluid.”

“But I do not wish to speculate on how many more parties will become part of the third front in the run-up to the elections,” he said.

Leaders, including Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary Prakash Karat, Communist Party of India general secretary A.B. Bardhan, TDP president N. Chandrababu Naidu and TRS president Chandrashekar Rao, will be participating in the rally. Representatives of the Republican Party of India and the Forward Bloc are also expected to attend the function.

JD(S) spokesperson Y.S.V. Datta said AIADMK general secretary and former Tamil Nadu Chief MinisterJayalalithaa had written a letter to Mr. Gowda stating that she would depute party’s Rajya Sabha member Dr. Maithreyan for the convention.