The Hindu : National : No talk on prime ministerial candidate, says Gowda

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No talk on prime ministerial candidate, says Gowda

Special Correspondent

SALEM: The third front, led by the Left and some other secular parties, have not broached the issue of the front’s prime ministerial candidate at any of its meetings so far. “Yes. It is so [not convened] in my honest opinion,” Janata Dal (Secular) president Deve Gowda told journalists here.

The former Prime Minister, who was on his way to Namakkal from Bangalore on Monday, however, reiterated that he was ‘personally prepared to extend cooperation’ to any of the collective decisions taken by the front leaders on important issues.

Final shape

Mr. Gowda hoped that the ‘friction’ that surfaced between a few and BSP leader Mayawati at a meeting of the front leaders at her residence just before the vote of confidence on nuclear deal would soon be sorted out. The initiative taken by Left leaders like Prakash Karat and A.B. Bardhan and Telugu Desam chief Chandrababu Naidu would be firmed up further. “It will take its final shape in a month or two.”

Not a new phenomenon

Saying that JD(S)’s alliance with the All-India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam was not a new phenomenon, he said his party had an electoral understanding with the AIADMK in 2006 and even contested from Thali. “But unfortunately, we lost the elections narrowly.” The recent meeting with the AIADMK leader Jayalalithaa was cordial, he noted.

Leaders of the Left met her first and formulated new strategies to contest the Parliamentary elections in Tamil Nadu. “The on-going formation of the alliance is the first phase of our front, while the second phase will take place after the elections with more number of secular parties joining us,” he said.

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