The ‘alliance’ between two old coalition government partners—Janata Dal (Secular) and Bharatiya Janata Party— in the byelections to two Lok Sabha constituencies and three Council seats has come after a lot of opposition in both the parties.
Sources told Express that talks for such an alliance were on for the last one month in the Legislative Assembly lounge between JD(S) state president H D Kumaraswamy and some select BJP leaders. “It got crystalised after byelections to two Lok Sabha constituencies, Bangalore Rural and Mandya, were announced,” a source added.
Even while talking on the revised budget in the Assembly, Kumaraswamy stated time and again that he does not regret forming a coalition government with BJP, dropping indications of alliance with the saffron party again. However, former prime minister and JD(S) national president H D Deve Gowda ruled out any alliance with BJP, which according to him is ‘communal’.
Still, Kumaraswamy whose dislike of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah is very strong, wanted the alliance to ensure that his bete noire is disgraced. Sources said it was a case of enemy’s enemy is my friend -- both JD(S) and BJP wanted the alliance as they saw Congress as their common enemy and they did not want division of votes in both constituencies.
The BJP wanted to act as a back-up support for JD(S) to win both the seats which had been held by the latter since 2009 Lok Sabha elections.
The JD(S) would do vice versa in the three Legislative Council seat byelections, earlier held by the BJP. Sources said that Gowda was aware of this alliance ‘much before’but did not want to back it fearing a dent to the secular image of his party.
“Kumaraswamy is not a person to go against the diktat of his father and he broke the news only after getting confirmation from Gowda of the alliance with BJP,” a source said. “It is inevitable for both BJP and JD(S) to consolidate their positions to weaken the hold of Siddaramaiah in the Congress. Already, dissensions are seen in the Congress camp over the selection of candidates in both the constituencies and that may be an advantage for JD(S). Congress leaders, who have been denied tickets, may remain silent in LS polls,” another source said.
Terming it is a new experiment, a senior BJP leader said they want to “test how this chemistry works out”.
If JD(S) manages to win both the seats, the alliance may continue in the coming general elections too. While JD(S) is strong in old Mysore region, BJP is a formidable position in Mumbai-Karnataka and Hyderabad-Karnataka region.
“There will be a change in results of general elections if both of us join together. In politics, nobody is friend or enemy. Ultimately the goal of both the parties is to defeat Congress wherever possible,” he added.
The BJP leader said, initially, there was opposition within his party also for an alliance with JD(S), but it was managed after explaining to them the reasons behind this ‘poll adjustment’.
“Frankly, the BJP is not strong in Bangalore Rural and Mandya when compared to JD(S). Fielding candidates would have benefited Congress due to division of votes. It is a give-and-take policy beneficial to both the parties,” the leader noted.
Sources said BJP national president Rajnath Singh gave his approval to the alliance with JD(S). Two days ago, Gowda said none of the BJP national leaders contacted him for an alliance.
Meanwhile, charging that the JD(S) leader H D Kumaraswamy, never bothered to address people’s problems, senior Congress leader D K Shivakumar appealed to the voters to give Congress a chance. He called upon the voters to reject the outsiders.