Karnataka Janata Dal (Secular) president CM Ibrahim has once again expressed his disappointment over the party’s alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party. Defying JD-S chief HD Deve Gowda, Ibrahim claimed that the party will not join NDA. Indicating a split within JDS, state party chief Ibrahim also went on to call his faction the original one for being secular.
What Karnataka JDS chief said on alliance with BJP?
Speaking to the media, Ibrahim also said that he would ask Kumaraswamy to come back. "I am the state president of JDS... We will decide with whom to alliance, except BJP... I will ask him (Kumaraswamy) to come back...," the party's Karnataka unit chief added.
On September 22, the JDS had joined hands with the BJP-led NDA to take on the Congress party in Karnataka in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. JDS leader and former Karnataka chief minister HD Kumaraswamy made the announcement of the tie-up after meeting Union Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP chief JP Nadda in the national capital.
Days after the announcement of the alliance, Ibrahim had said that if he wanted he would have joined BJP a long time ago, when Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the Prime Minister. “If you are making an alliance with the BJP, then who has accepted whom? If you have power, you don't need to ask for anything. If we wanted to join the BJP, I would have joined long back when Atal Bihari Vajpayee became the PM and offered me a ministry. We don't have anything personal. We respect each other. I respect PM Modi and Amit Shah. I'm still a party President. I'm an elected president," he added.
JDS' hold in Karnataka
Headed by former prime minister HD Deve Gowda, the JDS has long been a strong third player in the southern state where the Congress and the BJP have been the two main parties. The regional party came third in the recent assembly polls in the state, where the Congress scored a big win.
The BJP-led NDA believes an alliance with the JDS will ensure its domination in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls as the regional party enjoys considerable influence in south Karnataka where the saffron party has traditionally been weak.
What happened in the 2019 Lok Sabha Elections?
In the 2019 Lok Sabha Elections, the BJP won 25 seats with 51.75 per cent vote share in Karnataka. The Congress and the JDS managed to win one seat each with vote shares of 32.11 per cent and 9.74 per cent respectively after being in an alliance. The Mandya constituency was won by Sumalatha, the wife of Ambareesh, after the BJP's backing.
(With inputs from agencies)
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