A word of praise from your electoral rival can become an albatross around your neck. The Janata Dal (Secular) is finding that out to its cost with Prime Minister Narendra Modi discovering virtues in his predecessor in the job, Deve Gowda.
JD(S) chief ministerial candidate H.D. Kumaraswamy vehemently denied that Mr. Modi’s praise for his father indicated any deal between his party and the BJP for a post-poll tie-up in case of a hung Assembly.
“The reason Prime Minister Modi praised my father was simply because, having been in the same seat now, he realises what my father went through and what all he did for the country, always putting the country’s interests first and never giving into partisan politics while he occupied the Prime Minister’s chair,” Mr. Kumaraswamy told The Hindu. “He now has correct information about my father’s term, and he has also realised how cabals can demolish a reputation.”
“All this does not have anything to do with any electoral alliance or anything. We are going to form the government on our own, without either the Congress or the BJP,” he said.
According to him, his party has been the victim of a sustained campaign by the Congress and even the BJP to imply that there was a secret understanding between it and the BJP, in order to damage the minority support that the JD(S) enjoys in parts of the State.
“On the one hand the Congress says that there is a solid minority consolidation behind them, on the other hand Chief Minister Siddaramaiah gets Congress president Rahul Gandhi to say that we are the ‘B’ team of the BJP. This clearly demonstrates that the Congress is rattled by the support we command. Otherwise what is the need to make such statements,” he said.
Mr. Kumaraswamy said that there was widespread unhappiness about Mr. Siddaramaiah’s government not just among the powerful Vokkaligas, particularly dominant in the Old Mysuru belt where the Janata Dal (S) is strong but also among other communities. “Of course Vokkaligas have suffered as have other communities,” he said.
Mr. Siddaramaiah’s decision to fight a second seat of Badami in Bagalkot is being seen by the Opposition as a way to offset the risk of fighting from Chamundeswari, where a strong Vokkaliga consolidation behind the Janata Dal (S) has made intelligence agencies dub the seat as “risky.” Mr. Kumaraswamy certainly thinks so and has campaigned extensively there to build the contest between Mr. Siddaramaiah and G.T. Deve Gowda of the JD(S) as the “grudge match” of the polls.
Mr. Kumaraswamy also said that too much was being made about his father, H.D. Deve Gowda’s statement that he would disown Mr. Kumaraswamy if he went into a post-poll tie-up with the BJP.
“That will never happen, because the question will never arise. We are forming the government on our own. The people of Karnataka have seen the BJP and Congress governments and aspire for a government that will truly serve them, which is the Janata Dal (S) government,” he said.
