Deve Gowda defends JDS poll pact with BJP, says Congress out to destroy secular forces

“Even if we form a government with the BJP, we will not let go of minority protection. There should be no doubt that we will protect the minorities,” he told a news conference held to explain the recent JD(S) decision that has sent shockwaves in the regional party ranks.

“I will give you hundreds of instances, (where) for your own political gain, to retain the politics in one family, political control by one family, you want to fool (people),” he said, accusing Congress of trying to destroy the JD(S) whenever it formed an alliance with the national party.

Gowda alluded to the role of senior Congress leaders in Karnataka in the collapse of the JD(S)-Congress coalition government in 2019. JD(S) leaders, in the past, have pinned blame on Siddaramaiah alleging that he asked his loyalists to defect to the BJP to bring down the coalition government under H D Kumaraswamy.

“Who was responsible for the formation of the BJP government here? Doesn’t the Congress central leadership know this?” he asked, adding that Congress had failed to back B M Farooq (currently MLC) when the JD(S) nominated him as a candidate for Rajya Sabha.

“Who got him defeated? They are all big leaders. I don’t want to take their name. This is the (status of) secular party,” Gowda said.

“Congress has committed, one after other, blunder after blunder and wants to talk about secular democracy,” he said.

On whether the alliance would hurt the regional party, Gowda said this was discussed in the initial stages of the proposal for a pact. The decision to align was arrived at after discussions with all 19 MLAs and 8 MLCs. Is there any party in the country which “can claim not to have any relationship with BJP?” he asked, claiming even some Left leaders had joined hands with the saffron party to defeat Mamata Banerjee in West Bengal.

The alliance, he said, was “not opportunistic politics”. “The pain to save the regional party I worked for 40 years. There is no greed in this. It is I who made the decision.”

Seat-sharing between the two parties has not been discussed yet. BJP Parliamentary Board will first deliberate on the alliance before seat-sharing is discussed, Gowda added.

On several leaders from the Muslim community severing ties with JD(S) following the pact, the former PM said that the issue was whether his party was going to protect the minorities. “We will… We have not let down the minorities and will not do so in the future… Even if we form a government with BJP we will not let go of minority protection. There should be no doubt. We will protect minorities,” he said.

To a question on disgruntlement by party MLA from Devdurg, Raichur district, Karemma, Deve Gowda said the legislator had called him and promised not to leave the party until he and Kumaraswamy were alive.