BENGALURU: Two days after the JDS officially agreed to join the NDA, the regional party is geared for action. But even as former chief minister HD Kumaraswamy’s son Nikhil Kumaraswamy met senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader BS Yediyurappa to seek his blessings, murmurs of dissent grew loud, and some leaders of the Janata Dal (Secular) (JDS) minority cell decided to quit the party.
In fact, mass resignations are expected soon. JDS Vice-President Syed Shafiulla Saheb had sent his resignation letter to JDS President CM Ibrahim, who passed it on to party supremo and former prime minister HD Deve Gowda. Spokesperson UT Farzana Ashraf also resigned from the party membership. At a meeting of minority leaders on Sunday, more leaders decided to quit. Ibrahim, who has been mum, is likely to take a decision at the earliest. He had quit the Congress and joined JDS a few years ago.
Meanwhile, Kumaraswamy continued to slam the state government for proposing to open bars in every village which has a population of over 3,000. In a series of posts on his social media account, Kumaraswamy said Karnataka is a prosperous state. “By providing liquor to every household, the government is giving liquor guarantee to increase its revenue,” he said. The government is making Karnataka into a drunkards’ adda,’’ he said.
The government claimed to empower women with the Shakti scheme, but is destroying their families with liquor, he added. Housing Minister Zameer Ahmed Khan slammed Kumaraswamy, and challenged him to say whether he would win from Channapatna without Muslim votes. “Let HD Revanna, Turuvekere Krishnappa, Chikkanayakanahalli, Suresh Babu, Gurmitkal Nagangouda Kandakur, Deodurga Karemma and Chennarayapatna Balakrishna say Muslims need not vote for them,” he said.
He said Kumaraswamy did not win by a big margin in Channapatna and had Muslims not supported him, he would have been defeated. On the other hand, BJP leaders too are unhappy with the alliance, as it may cost them their tickets in the Lok Sabha elections.
“JDS does not have a presence in Karnataka, their number dropped to 19 in the assembly election, and many leaders joined the Congress. Their only Lok Sabha seat of Hassan is in dispute. We are not going to benefit,” said a BJP leader, on the condition of anonymity.
