Ten parties from across the country came together at a massive rally in Tumkur, Karnataka on Thursday (12th March) to launch a Third Front. The objective behind launching the Third Front is to put an alternative to the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the general elections beginning next month. Former prime minister and Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) leader H D Deve Gowda is the prime force behind the concept of a Third Front.

 

Apart from Gowda, leaders of six other regional parties and four Left parties attended the grand rally in Tumkur, about 60 km from the state capital Bangalore. The leaders called upon the people to vote for a democratic and secular government in the April-May Lok Sabha polls.

 

Apart from JD-S, Third Front consists of the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M), the Communist Party of India (CPI), the Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP), the Forward Bloc, the Telugu Desam Party (TDP), the AIADMK, the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS), the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and Haryana Janhit Congress.

 

While addressing the rally, CPI-M general secretary Prakash Karat described the launch of the Third Front as historic. CPI general secretary A.B. Bardhan said that, Third Front is not an alternative for power but for policy and programmes. He was confident that Orissa chief minister and Biju Janata Dal leader Naveen Patnaik would soon join the Third Front.