BENGALURU: Former chief minister H D Kumaraswamy on Wednesday declared that the newly floated Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) by Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) patriarch and Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao, and the JDS will work out a strategy to free Karnataka from both the national parties, BJP and Congress.
“We have decided to work together in the 2023 assembly polls and 2024 Lok Sabha elections. There is an environment in Karnataka as in Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana to free the state from the BJP and Congress. We will work it out,” he told reporters after taking part in the launch of BRS as a national party.
clarified that JDS will be an alliance partner with the BRS in future, and hoped that DMK leader and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin will join the alternative force emerging at the national level. Kumaraswamy, his son and JDS youth wing president Nikhil, brother H D Revanna and other legislators took part in the launch of BRS.
In fact, Chandrashekar Rao had visited former prime minister H D Deve Gowda at the latter’s residence in Bengaluru six months ago and held discussions. Recently, Kumaraswamy who had been to New Delhi visited Rao in Hyderabad.
Though there are rumours that the BRS will contest the 2023 assembly polls in Karnataka, there was no clarity as such. Since the JDS is expected to contest only 123 seats, it may back the BRS in select seats, especially in assembly constituencies which share a border with Telangana and AP, with the Telugu-speaking populace the deciding factor.
If it works, the JDS and BRS may continue with the arrangement in the 2024 LS polls.