BANGALORE: Hoping to take advantage of the ongoing turmoil in all political parties in Karnataka, the Janata Dal (United) has decided to hold its national executive meeting at Bangalore immediately after the assembly elections to five states are over.
JD(U) leader Sharad Yadav said that a political polarisation in Karnataka cannot be ruled out in the near future. “Anything can happen any time in Karnataka politics,” Yadav said.
When asked whether former CM B S Yeddyurappa, who is battling with the BJP leadership over his return to power, was in touch with him to join JD(U), Yadav remained non-committal. “I do not want to say anything about it. It is a hypothetical question and I will not answer it.”
Yadav said JD(U)’s alliance with the BJP has fallen apart in Uttar Pradesh and that it would contest all the 403 seats alone. “The main reason being the BJP’s decision to induct former minister Babu Singh Kushwaha into its fold,” he said. “It was becoming difficult for us to defend the BJP. Hence we decided to go alone.”
However, he said that the party’s decision to go alone in the UP elections will not affect its relations with the NDA constituents. “In some states we are fighting elections alone and in others we are fighting with the BJP... NDA will remain... It is a magnet that is keeping us together,” he said.