BENGALURU: In a strategic move, former prime minister and JDS supremo HD Deve Gowda here on Saturday held the party’s National Executive Committee meeting and expelled the party’s national vice-president and former Kerala MLA CK Nanu. It was a swift move by Gowda, ahead of a parallel National EC meeting planned by Nanu and former Karnataka JDS president CM Ibrahim here on December 11.
Recently, Nanu held an alternative National EC meeting in Kerala and set December 9 as a deadline for Gowda to exit the party’s alliance with NDA, formed to fight the 2024 Lok Sabha polls together in Karnataka.
“When the national president is alive, Nanu attempted the misadventure of holding a parallel meeting under his presidency. Despite a decision taken in Ibrahim’s presence to go into an alliance with BJP for the Parliamentary polls in the interest of JDS, he went against it, damaging the party’s image by issuing statements in the media,” Gowda told reporters.
The executive committee passed two resolutions, to expel Nanu and to ratify the expulsion of former state president Ibrahim. Gowda clarified that JDS will continue to be with the ruling LDF in Kerala, as he has given his letter of consent to the JDS state unit president. “When the I.N.D.I.A bloc meeting was held, and Bihar CM Nitish Kumar called me up. But they (I.N.D.I.A) had put forth certain conditions and kept JDS away. After that, we allied with BJP in the interest of our party,” he said.
He said the party's organisational election will be held next year following an Election Commission’s order. He said delegates from most of the state JDS units, including West Bengal, Haryana, Punjab, Jammu and Kashmir, Uttar Pradesh, and Maharashtra, took part in the EC meeting.