Karnataka ends search for the third front

The election in Karnataka had two messages to the nation – one – it is not easy for the BJP to handle the Southern States as it had been handling the north and north eastern States; two – there is no need for the anti-BJP parties to look for an alternative but to tie-up with the Congress.

Ahead of the Karnataka elections, some regional outfits, particularly TRS from Telangana and TDP from Andhra Pradesh have tried to build a third alternative to the Congress-led UPA and BJP-led NDA. While TDP did the work behind, TRS was more visible and its chief Chandrasekhar Rao had even met some of the leaders to build the third front, which he called a secular front. He met Mamata Benerji of Trinamool Congress in West Bengal and Kumaraswamy of Janta Dal (Secular) of Karnataka, while Akhilesh Yadav of Samajwadi Party of Uttar Pradesh had visited Hyderabad for talks with the TRS chief. It was expected that the regional parties would form a third front keeping the BJP and the Congress aside.

Now with the Karnataka results out and Kumaraswamy set to swear-in on Monday, the efforts to build third front disappear as the Congress plays key role in making Kumaraswamy the king maker. Interestingly, Mamata Benerji too had extended her support to the Congress-JD(S) alliance in Karnataka, which could be extended to the rest of the country. As the Congress is now the king-maker in preventing the spread of BJP, the regional parties which are not comfortable with the BJP would have to keep the third front thoughts aside and align with the Congress, ahead of the 2019 elections.

Kumaraswamy had invited Rahul Gandhi, Chandrasekhar Rao, Mamata Benerji and Chandrababu Naidu, as of now, for his swearing-in ceremony. The TRS and TDP chiefs are set to share the dais with Rahul Gandhi, who is emerging as the alternative to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The Bengaluru’s swearing-in is likely to be the beginning of all regional parties to rally with the Congress making the 2019 elections as BJP Vs all, as already claimed by BJP’s Amit Shah. The BJP is expecting all major regional parties of the country, including some of them now present in the NDA, to walk out of the NDA and contest against the BJP in the next elections. It is for this reason, Shah said that the 2019 election would be BJP Vs all. Bengaluru is thus set to forge the alliance for the next elections, closing doors and thoughts for the third front in the country.