BENGALURU: JDS candidate Inchara Govindraj’s humiliating defeat due to cross-voting by MLAs of his own party and ally BJP, has triggered intense introspection within the party. Sources close to the JDS leadership claim that party leader HD Kumaraswamy had anticipated, and perhaps even welcomed the loss to expose coordination failures with alliance partner BJP.
The defeat is being viewed internally as a deliberate exposé. Kumaraswamy, who has long nursed ambitions of the chief minister’s chair in 2028, reportedly used the contest to highlight what he sees as critical weaknesses in the state BJP leadership, particularly its inability to manage its own ranks and deliver on joint opposition strategies.
The JDS tried hard to have patriarch HD Deve Gowda renominated to the RS and was not too pleased that the BJP state leadership did not support them, and instead opposed them. The numbers, on paper, had looked promising. With BJP holding 66 seats and JDS 18, the alliance commanded a collective strength of 84 votes -- enough, in theory, to deliver a comfortable win which needed only 28 votes. Yet coordination proved elusive.
Insiders reveal the JDS pushed for a unified approach involving key figures like ST Somashekar, Shivaram Hebbar, Basanagouda Yatnal, plus Janardhan Reddy, but the BJP state unit hesitated and ultimately declined to field its own candidate. Instead, it urged the JDS to go it alone with its limited 18-seat base, offering assurances that “extra votes” would flow in. Those votes never materialized. The Congress, sensing vulnerability, fielded only four candidates while fully aware of the risks to a fifth.
The outcome left the JDS rank and file questioning the alliance. “Kumaraswamy is not pleased with how the BJP state leadership has handled critical issues like the Bidadi Township project and other coordination,” a source close to the JDS leadership said.
The defeat comes at a sensitive time for the BJP as well. Kumaraswamy, positioning himself as a claimant for the top job post-2028, is said to have brushed aside internal warnings about the risks. His message is pointed: the current state BJP leadership, including president BY Vijayendra and Opposition Leader R Ashoka, lacks the steel to keep the flock together. “How can the two parties unitedly go to polls with this kind of leadership?” he has reportedly asked the BJP brass.
For Kumaraswamy, the episode serves a dual purpose -- strengthening his own leverage within the NDA framework while undermining potential rivals within the BJP. The JDS believes this disarray will force the BJP high command to take note of ground realities in Karnataka.
