Son-rise in JDS for Karnataka polls as Devegowda party eyes kingmaker role

With the 2023 polls being perceived as possibly the last one with the 89-year-old Devegowda’s active participation, the JDS is expected to make an emotional pitch to its vote base to provide a final hurrah to the veteran leader.

The party’s first list does not name candidates for six seats it won in 2018 in Hassan district, which is considered to be the stronghold of Devegowda’s second son and ex-minister H D Revanna. The party is set to give ticket to Revanna’s wife Bhavani Revanna from the Hassan town constituency, which was won for the first time by the BJP in 2018 even though the JDS bagged six other seats in the district.

Among the surprising names in the JDS’ first list of candidates are the sons of Kumaraswamy, state party president C M Ibrahim and senior leader G T Devegowda.

Kumaraswamy’s son, Nikhil Kumaraswamy, a film star and politician, has been given ticket from the Ramanagara seat which is considered a “safe bet” for the party. Nikhil will replace his mother Anitha as the party’s candidate from Ramanagara, even as Kumaraswamy will again contest from Channapatna which he currently holds.

Nikhil had contested the 2019 Lok Sabha polls from the Vokkaliga heartland seat of Mandya but was defeated by the Independent candidate, Sumalatha, which was due to perceived anger among Vokkaligas over several members of the Devegowda clan entering electoral politics.

The JDS has fielded Ibrahim’s son C M Fayaz from the Humnabad seat in Bidar district in north Karnataka, which was represented in 1994 and 2004 by ex-state party president Merajuddin Patel, who passed away in 2008. Ibrahim returned to the JDS from the Congress last year in the hope of reviving his flagging political career.

In the old Mysuru constituencies of Chamundeshwari and Hunsur, the JDS is fielding the father-son duo of G T Devegowda and his son Harish Gowda, respectively. G T Devegowda defeated former Congress CM Siddaramaiah in Chamundeshwari in 2018. He was tipped to be headed to the Congress if his precondition of a ticket for his son would have been met. However, party chief H D Devegowda and Kumaraswamy managed to persuade him to stick by the JDS with assurances of a poll ticket for his son.

Among its nominees for the 26 constituencies are fresh faces in four seats on account of their sitting MLAs having defected to the BJP or the Congress. Of these, in Kolar and Gubbi, where its MLAs, Srinvasas Gowda and S R Srinivas, are linked to the Congress, the JDS is fielding new candidates. It is also doing the same in K R Pet and Hunsur seats, where MLAs Narayana Gowda and A H Vishwanath, respectively, switched to the BJP in 2019 to topple the then Congress-JDS coalition government.

The JDS has not announced its nominee so far for the Mahalakshmi Layout seat in Bengaluru, where its MLA K Gopalaiah switched to the BJP in 2019 to help the latter come to power.

The party has also nominated 17 candidates who finished second in the 2018 polls. It has named four Muslim candidates in the first list.

The JDS has lost ground in much of north and central Karnataka over the years after putting up a remarkable performance in the 1994 polls, when the then undivided Janata Dal had won 115 of the 224 seats with Devegowda becoming the CM.

The party is making attempts to be able to win 40-60 seats in the 2023 polls by concentrating on regions where it is known to have a significant political base – especially in the entire Vokkaliga belt in southern Karnataka and pockets of north Karnataka.

It may emerge as the kingmaker even if it bags 20-40 seats – like it did when the 2004 and 2018 polls delivered fractured mandates. While Kumaraswamy has insisted that his party’s aim is to win 123 seats he has also suggested that the BJP will have to turn to the JDS to seek power. Ex-PM Devegowda has maintained warm relations with PM Narendra Modi, which is likely to hold the JDS in good stead with regard to its equation with the BJP in the event of a hung Assembly.

Kumaraswamy is attempting to project the JDS as a protector of the land, water resources, language and cultural rights of the people of Karnataka in its capacity as a regional party while suggesting that the national parties – the BJP and the Congress – are “impediments” to the assertion of local identities and rights.

Since the Janata Dal’s 1994 triumph, the Janata Dal Secular – which emerged after the Janata Parivar break-ups – has managed to win a maximum of 58 seats in 2004. Despite the sharp dip in its electoral fortunes, the JDS has maintained its salience in Karnataka politics even if it manages to win only about 40 seats.

A hung verdict in the 2018 polls – when the JDS won 38 seats, the Congress 78 seats and the BJP 104 – put the party in a key role just like 2004, when the Congress won 65 seats, the BJP 79 and the JDS 58 seats.

In the 2013 polls the JDS won 40 seats but the divisions within the BJP helped the Congress achieve a majority.

Many political pundits are of the view that the 2023 polls may also end up in a stalemate with no clear majority for any party that might, in turn, catapult the JDS into the kingmaker’s role again.

“Ours is a regional party and we are trying our best to survive. There has been a coalition with the BJP on one occasion and there has been a coalition with the Congress on another occasion. We have the experience of both sides. We want to fight independently in the next elections and take up important issues facing the state of Karnataka,” JDS supremo Devegowda said a few months ago.

Seen as having got closer to the ruling BJP at the Centre and in the state since the collapse of its coalition government with the Congress in 2019, the JDS has attempted to project a semblance of equidistace from the national parties.

Apart from holding on to its strongholds, the JDS also seems to have the capacity to divide minority votes in seats where there is direct fight between the BJP and the Congress and where minority votes could be crucial.

Also, despite being perceived to be wishy-washy in its political stances, the party still has a notable support base among farmers on account of policies like the farm loan waiver initiated by Kumaraswamy during his brief tenure as the CM during 2018-2019.

“I want to make it categorically clear that we are not going to associate with anybody. We are going to strengthen the JDS in Karnataka to take up the issues facing the state. We are going to see that the base of our regional party is not eroded and we are going to fight elections on our own party programmes and policies,” Devegowda also said.