Bengaluru: Former Karnataka chief minister D.V. Sadanand Gowda questioned the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) high command’s decision to align with the Janata Dal (Secular), suggesting that it undermines the party cadres in Old Mysuru region and grassroots workers may not support it on the ground.
Though the seat sharing is yet to be finalised, ThePrint has reported that the JD(S) is hoping to secure Mandya, Hassan and Chikkaballapura parliamentary seats — all in the Old Mysuru region — apart from Bengaluru Rural.
“To the best of my knowledge, none of the state leaders were consulted,” Gowda told ThePrint, adding that it would be difficult for grassroot-level workers to join hands unless the central leadership gives some guidelines or motivation.
“The areas where JD(S) have a little monopoly is the Old Mysuru region. But the BJP has done well in this region this time. Earlier, we used to get 4-5 percent (vote share), but this time we have gone up to 17 percent. So, many leaders have also emerged. Now after the JD(S) becomes part of the NDA, automatically all the decisions as far as that area is concerned, the priority will be given to JD(S). So, our people who worked hard for several years should not be ignored,” the 70-year-old former Union minister said.
The two parties, which had gone head-to-head in the run up to the Karnataka election, would now be forced to overlook their rivalries for the sake of the alliance.
A similar pre-poll alliance between the Congress and the JD(S) ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha election was routed and the BJP won an unprecedented 25 out of 28 seats in Karnataka. But in the May 10 assembly polls, the BJP lost power and the JD(S) saw its vote share shrink by five percentage points to 13 percent. The Congress won 135 out of the 224 seats in Karnataka.
“There are people who say that just because we lost the 2023 election, we have allied with them. No, that is not the case. As I said earlier, when the Congress was ruling in Karnataka, the BJP got 18 seats,” Gowda said.
Ever since the alliance was announced, there have been various calculations and equations used to justify the first pre-poll coalition between the two parties. The most important is the coming together of the Lingayat-backed BJP and Vokkaliga-backed JD(S) to take on the Siddaramaiah-led AHINDA (Kannada acronym for minorities, backward classes and Dalits).
Gowda said that the alliance would work only if central leaders iron out differences between the two outfits.”The close association, alignment with the JD(S) is the only issue. If the central leaders resolve this issue, then everything will go smoothly,” he said.
In Karnataka’s volatile politics, JD(S) has been the only major party to ally with both the BJP and Congress. The JD(S) and the BJP have had informal understandings in the Old Mysuru region where the latter’s limited cadre would rally behind the former. It is vice-versa in the northern districts where the JD(S) has limited presence. Both parties consider the Congress as the ‘common enemy’, political observers say.
Though the JD(S) is likely to have some influence on Vokkaligas convincing them to vote for the BJP, its sway on Muslims is likely to be very limited, ThePrint reported.
Senior JD(S) leader H.D. Revanna has said that the Muslim community will remain with former prime minister H.D. Deve Gowda, but people from the party’s strongholds are not so sure to remain with the regional outfit.
A large portion of minorities is believed to have backed the Congress in the 2023 assembly elections, abandoning the JD(S). “If the JD(S) are able to keep their cadre intact, even during the alliance time, then automatically..a certain percentage (of minorities) may go because of the present situation across the state… just because the BJP has been branded a communal party,” Gowda said.
The BJP-JD(S) alliance is hoping to cash in on the Lingayat and Vokkaliga combination. “The caste census is going on. The caste census is opposed by both Vokkaliga and Lingayats. So, there was a single point where we may have a common agenda,” Gowda said, adding that there are 37 Lingayat MLAs in the Congress who are divided on whether the findings of caste census in Karnataka should be released or scrapped.
(Edited by Tony Rai)