At 79, H.D. Deve Gowda believes he is playing one final innings. A former prime minister, Gowda says he no longer aspires for the post, but has one burning ambition: to see the Third Front, a combination of regional parties and the Left parties to power in the 15th elections to the Indian Parliament. In an exclusive interview to Arab News, he exudes confidence that his Front is on the threshold of emerging as an alternative to the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Both the Congress and the BJP have derided the Third Front as a bunch of no-hopers, with as many prime ministerial candidates as the number of parties in it. The Third Front experiment has not succeeded in the past. Do you think you will be able to make it this time?
We are not claiming that the Third Front will get the majority in this elections. But we are confident that neither the Congress nor the BJP will get anywhere near majority, even in combination with whatever allies they are now left with.
The Congress has lost two key allies Rashtriya Janata Dal of Lalu Prasad and Lok Janshakti Party of Ram Vilas Paswan in Bihar. They don’t have any allies in Uttar Pradesh. These two states account for almost a third of the total number of seats in the Parliament. Its alliance with Nationalist Congress Party of Sharad Pawar is confined only to Maharashtra.
In Tamil Nadu, they have lost the four allies. On the other side, BJP has lost an important ally in Orissa, and its Hindutva agenda is steadily eroding people’s confidence. We are the natural alternative.
The constituent of our Front is very strong in their respective states, and will get a majority of the seats in their respective regions of influence. That being the scenario, neither of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance nor the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance can form the government. It is the Third Front which will decide the composition of the future government.
You expect to call the shots after the elections. Who will you support in such an eventuality: UPA or NDA?
There is absolutely no question of any truck with the BJP and the NDA. The Third Front has come together on the unshakable plank of secularism. We will not compromise it by either supporting or taking support from the BJP. What we expect to happen is the formation of a Third Front government with the support of Congress. In fact, we have no doubts that the Congress will be forced to support us, either from outside or as partners in the government. Post-elections, we expect some more allies of the Congress and the BJP joining our Front.
The Congress is projecting Manmohan Singh as PM and L.K. Advani is BJP’s candidate. But in the Third Front, you have many aspirants like Bahujan Samaj Party’s Mayawati, AIADMK’s J. Jayalalithaa, and may be even Telugu Desam Party’s N. Chandrababu Naidu. Not to forget yourself.
Let me make one thing clear again. I am not in the race for prime ministership. Jayalalithaa has also said she does not have prime ministerial ambitions. We have repeatedly said that our prime ministerial candidate will be decided jointly by the constituents after the elections.
Does that mean you will pitch for Mayawati as the prime minister?
Even last year, when we started work on the Third Front again, I had said I was ready to support Mayawati as PM. There is no change. As president of Janata Dal (Secular) I will support Mayawati. But the final decision, of course, will be taken by consensus among the Third Front constituent parties.
