12 May : JD-S leader H D Kumaraswamy on Tuesday night met Sonia Gandhi fuelling speculation of further cracks in the Third Front as Congress and BJP hunted for allies to shore up numbers with no signs of a clear winner emerging in the LS elections.Even as his father and former prime minister H D Deve Gowda, who was behind the formation of the Third Front, issued a statement saying it was too early to write the obituary of this grouping, his son met Gandhi at her 10 Janpath residence.
While details of the hush-hush meeting were not known, it triggered intense speculation whether the grouping of Left and regional parties was facing further trouble after the TRS led by K Chandrashekar Rao dumped the Front and jumped on the NDA bandwagon on Sunday.
The former Karnataka chief minister tried to cover his face with a handkerchief when newsmen and photojournalists spotted him in a white Mercedes at the gate of Gandhi’s residence adjoining the Congress headquarters.
Earlier in the day, Congress reached out to parties outside UPA saying all secular parties are welcome to join its endeavour for the formation of the next government under its leadership.
"The UPA is intact. We have not left any of our allies. All secular parties are welcome," AICC spokesman Janardhan Dwivedi said.