The need for a third front, by the anti-Congress and anti-Bharatiya Janata Party  “forces”, will only be felt after the Lok Sabha polls, former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda said here on Thursday.

Efforts like the UNPA are a “result of some honest efforts but the real third force will come into being only in the post-poll scenario,” he said while disagreeing that a third force was already in place.

However, Gowda, who represents the Hassan Lok Sabha constituency, declined to reveal his role in the party in the post-poll scenario saying, “after the elections are over if some friends ask for my co-operation, I will have no problem.”

Gowda claimed his relationship with Congress leadership was “never strained” though he was pained by the fact that none in the Congress camp tried to "acknowledge" his efforts to keep away BJP.

“The day Kumaraswamy  joined hands with BJP, it was the darkest day of my political career. But even after we left the BJP, none in Congress ever tried to acknowledge my conscious efforts to distance from the saffron party,” he said.

“I believe, Kumaraswamy's action may have tarnished the party's image but it also saved the party from the evil designs of the BJP and Congress,” he said.