BENGALURU: Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao will meet former Prime Minister and Janata Dal-Secular (JDS) chief H D Devegowda on Friday in Bengaluru. The meeting to discuss the possibility of a third front in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections to take on the Bharatiya Janata Party and Congress comes weeks after Rao met West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
"Third front is the only agenda for Friday's meeting. Our leader (KCR) is trying to build a formidable force to take on national parties in 2019 and H D Devegowda is a tall leader who has spoken in support of the third front earlier," said a highly placed source from the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS). K Chandrashekhar Rao, popularly referred to as KCR, will meet Devegowda at his residence in Padmanabhanagar of Bengaluru at 11.30 AM on Friday.
"While H D Devegowda has spoken about the Third Front in the past, we will wait for the proposal KCR has for us. For now, the meeting has been scheduled," confirmed a source from H D Devegowda's office. Devegowda was elevated to being one of the tallest leaders to have emerged from the Third Front after he became Prime Minister in 1996 with the United Front- a cluster of non-Congress and non-BJP regional parties. KCR and Mamata Banerjee are hoping to recreate a rival to the two national parties in the same format.
It is to be seen how the possibility of joining hands for a third front will work for the JD(S) that has been predicted by multiple opinion polls to emerge kingmaker post Karnataka Assembly Elections. In case of a hung assembly, the JD(S) is likely to join hands with the BJP or the Congress to form a government. H D Devegowda's decision post the meeting with Rao on Friday will have a rippling effect not just in Karnataka but also influence 2019 Lok Sabha elections.