The Hindu : Front Page : Gowda: third front launch in Karnataka significant

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Mar 11, 2009
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

Front Page

Front Page

Gowda: third front launch in Karnataka significant

Laiqh A. Khan

Official launch on March 12 at Dobbespet
Karnataka played important role in national politics

BANGALORE: Long eyed by the Bharatiya Janata Party as its gateway to south India, Karnataka will now play host to the launch of the third front, comprising the Janata Dal (Secular), Left parties, Telugu Desam Party, Telangana Rashtra Samithi and the All-India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam.

A battery of national leaders, including CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat, CPI general secretary A.B. Bardhan, TDP president N. Chandrababu Naidu and TRS president K. Chandrashekar Rao will share the dais with JD(S) supremo and the former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda at Dobbespet, on the outskirts of Bangalore, on March 12 when the third front is expected to be officially launched.

Mr. Gowda said the third front launch in Karnataka was politically significant. For, it was in the State that the BJP managed to form its first government in south India.

“I suggested this to other leaders of the proposed third front and all of them agreed to the idea of holding the event in Karnataka,” he said.

Karnataka played an important role in national politics in the past and the developments in the State defined the course of politics in the country. He pointed out that the party born out of the revolutionary political movement of Jayaprakash Narayan in the 1970s was named in Bangalore. “Madhu Dandavate, Ramakrishna Hegde, L.K. Advani and I coined the name Janata Party, which had the same initials of JP as Jayaprakash Narayan was popularly known as.”

Karnataka also played a crucial role in the birth of the Janata Dal in 1988, by bringing together the warring groups of the Janata parivar.

Mr. Gowda visited Dobbespet on Tuesday to oversee the preparations for the rally.

JD(S) spokesperson Y.S.V. Datta said the party expected around four lakh people to attend the rally. “We did not wish to hold the rally in Bangalore and cause inconvenience to the people of the city due to the traffic snarls that could arise,” he added.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Front Page