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HomePoliticsKarnataka allies JD(S), Congress may go separate ways to fight municipal polls

Karnataka allies JD(S), Congress may go separate ways to fight municipal polls

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Both parties say fighting the election alone could be the best way to avoid further dissent and stop BJP from poaching their leaders.

Bengaluru: The JD(S) is likely to go solo in the upcoming municipal elections in Karnataka as local leaders are not in favour of joining hands with its ally Congress, ThePrint has learnt.

Similar voices of dissent have emerged from the Congress camp as well. During a meeting with newly elected state Congress president Dinesh Gundu Rao a few days ago, a section of party leaders made it clear that they had fought tooth and nail against their JD(S) opponents in the assembly elections and so it will be very difficult to join hands with them.

The two parties are in a dilemma because if they contest the urban local body polls — due in September — together, they run the risk of not just antagonising their local leaders, but also losing them to the BJP.

The second situation will be more uncomfortable. Party leaders will have to denigrate each other at the local body level but show a united front at the state level.

The third option is for the Congress and the JD(S) to go their separate ways.

‘BJP keeping an on vulnerable leaders’

JD(S) secretary-general Danish Ali agrees that both parties will need to take a decision keeping the interest of the coalition in mind. Ali indicated that it will be better for the JD(S) to fight it alone as a pre-poll alliance in the local body elections may turn out to be an opportunity for the BJP.

“There is a thought among the Congress and the JD(S) that if they fight together, the BJP may find an opportunity. If any JD(S) leader is denied ticket, he may go to BJP,” he said.

Citing the example of the Old Mysore region, a JD(S) stronghold, a Congress leader  explained that the personal rivalry between leaders of the two parties is so strong that they may feel humiliated and this will only force them to either contest independently or join hands with the BJP, which is slowly gaining ground in the region. Either way it will sabotage the interests of both parties, the Congress leader said.

In municipal elections, local issues, caste equations and popularity of the leaders matter the most. “Just because the two parties got together to form a government to keep the BJP away at the state level, it does not mean that at our local level we are ready to fight together,” said a JD(S) leader from Mandya speaking on the condition of anonymity.

“Our issues are different and the party leaders know that. We have expressed our reservations before our senior party leaders and we will wait for their final say,” he added.

‘Fight’ over seats

A tug-of-war is already brewing between the two parties over certain seats. Congress leaders from Hassan met Gundu Rao urging him not to give away the seat to the JD(S) as part of their seat-sharing formula for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

“We have come here to urge our party leaders that the JD(S) should not be given both seats of Hassan and Mandya. We have a very strong base there and we should field our candidate there,” Hassan district Congress president Javagal Manjunath told reporters.

Both Hassan and Mandya are JD(S) strongholds.

“I did have a meeting with leaders from Hassan. But we have not take any decision yet, be it seat-sharing for 2019 or the urban local body elections,” Gundu Rao said.

“We do understand we have to keep the cadres upbeat and ensure that we don’t hurt their feelings. But we cannot deny the fact that there would be some amount of seat sharing as it is our per-poll promise,” he added.

Political analysts also say that a pre-poll alliance at the grassroots level could spell nothing but doom for either party.

A. Narayana, associate professor, Azim Premji University, says it’s a tough choice that both parties need to make and there will be a tradeoff between the BJP trying to find an opening and Congress and JD(S) going separate ways in the interest of the coalition.

“It makes political sense to do that, but if you see the way they have been conducting themselves as political partners in the state level, it is not that they together work with perfect understanding between themselves,” said Narayana.

“There has been enough infighting on issues which has already shown that they are not ready to merge their identities,” he added.

Political commentator Harish Ramaswamy also agrees that the JD(S) and the Congress should fight the urban local body elections separately.

“Kumaraswamy had earlier gone with the BJP in some places and with the Congress in others. They should only be worried at the state level,” Ramaswamy said.

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