Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, June 7: While the Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar is trying to mobilise the opposition parties on one platform against the ruling BJP in the 2024 Parliamentary elections, the Karnataka-based regional party Janata Dal (Secular) is learnt to be veering back to its one-time ally, the BJP.
The JD(S) of the former prime minister HD Deve Gowda and his former chief minister son HD Kumarswamy, was undone by the Congress party’s stunning victory in the recent state Assembly elections that not only dethroned the BJP but also left the JD(S), hoping to emerge as the kingmaker, irrelevant. The JD(S) gave its worst-ever performance, winning only 19 seats in the 224-member state Assembly, less than half their strength in the previous house. Most of its vote base was taken over by the Congress.
The JD(S) is learnt to be leaning towards the BJP and has sent feelers for an alliance for the 2024 national election. It is believed that the JD(S), which won only one of Karnataka’s 28 Lok Sabha seats in the 2019 election, sent feelers to the BJP weeks after the assembly election verdict.
The JD(S) reportedly assesses a chance to defeat the Congress and salvage its vote-base if it ties up with the BJP. The BJP and JD(S) had formed a coalition government in Karnataka in 2006 with Kumarswamy as Chief Minister and BS Yediyurappa as his deputy, under a 20-month power-sharing formula. The coalition was short-lived as the JDS did not transfer power to BJP.
There have been several indications that the JD(S) is once again gravitating towards its former partner. Besides that the former prime minister refused to join the opposition ranks to boycott the inauguration last week of the new Parliament building by the prime minister Narendra Modi, the recent most striking clue was Deve Gowda’s strong defence of Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw as he faced resignation demands from other opposition parties following the Odisha train accident killing 288 people.
“The Railway Minister has taken all necessary steps to restore the damage that happened. He is working tirelessly. Let the inquiry be completed. The minister is doing his best and demanding his resignation at this stage is not wise,” Deve Gowda had said.
Another giveaway was Deve Gowda’s comment on Tuesday doubting the prospect of an opposition alliance against the BJP. “I can analyse in detail about this country’s politics, what is the use? Show me one party which has not associated with the BJP, either directly or indirectly. Show me one party in the whole country, then I will answer,” Deve Gowda said to a question on Nitish Kumar’s efforts to corral non-BJP parties.
Deve Gowda also avoided a direct response to questions on whether his party would join such a front ad expressed strong doubts if such a front would ever emerge against the BJP. “Who is communal, who is not communal, I don’t know. First of all, the definition of communal and non-communal — it can be enlarged, then the scope is much…” he said.
Deve Gowda was also showered with birthday wishes by Narendra Modi and other BJP leaders when he turned 91 last month to help break the between the two parties developed since the 2018 Karnataka elections when the JD(S) formed a government in alliance with the Congress but was dumped by the BJP breaking away members of both the parties.
In the Congress, after back-to-back victories in Himachal Pradesh and Karnataka, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra is set to play more important roles in the party’s campaigns in elections later this year, particularly in Telangana and Madhya Pradesh.
Priyanka Gandhi has already held a rally in Telangana and she is expected to address one in Madhya Pradesh on June 12, where she is likely to amplify the party’s promise of income guarantee of ₹ 1,500 to women. She is also likely to campaign extensively in Chhattisgarh, sources said.
Mahila samvaad (women forums), an idea she floated and implemented in the party’s campaign centred around women in the Uttar Pradesh election last year was also part of the Congress’s campaign in the recent Karnataka polls. It will be an integral part of the Congress’s upcoming poll campaigns, as will be the promise of income support for women, free cylinders, and free public transport.
These are also among the Congress’s five guarantees in Karnataka, which are believed to have contributed significantly to the party’s historic victory, winning 135 of 224 seats. In all four states where elections are due this year – Madhya Pradesh, Telangana, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh – the party is expected to announce schemes exclusively for women.
“A separate focus on women voters has entered the Congress’s thinking now, after UP. Because the leadership has understood that women want solutions to price rise. The other very important thing that Priyankaji has been pushing for is increasing the number of women candidates. She is pushing for this even though her own party leaders reject the idea outright,” a party leader close to Priyanka Gandhi said.