Karnataka BJP unease over JD(S) alliance deepens as Sadananda Gowda flags turmoil

BJP sources said Gowda’s outburst “just reflects the growing uneasiness among the party leaders who believe that their future is closely linked to the state of affairs in the Karnataka unit”.

In an interview to a Kannada newspaper, Sadananda Gowda has blamed the party’s central leaders for its debacle in the Assembly polls, charging that the Karnataka BJP leaders were unhappy with their “dictatorial attitude” that “weakened” the state unit. The ex-chief minister also said that the Congress was currently ahead of the BJP in 10-15 Lok Sabha seats. In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP had swept the state, bagging 25 of the total 26 seats.

Voicing the resentment among a section of the state BJP leaders over the party leadership’s move to forge an alliance with the JD(S), Gowda claimed that none of the state leaders, including even B S Yeddyurappa, was taken into confidence for this decision.

The state BJP has still not been able to come up with a plan of action as it “lacks guidance and leadership”, said a party leader. Some key organisational appointments in the state unit – including that of its new chief and the Leader of Opposition (LoP) in the Assembly — have not been made so far, leaving it open for the Congress to attack the party as a “rudderless ship”.

Gowda’s remarks came on Thursday, a day when former BJP MLA Ramappa Lamani joined the Congress, even as speaking on the occasion Deputy CM and Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president D K Shivakumar claimed that he had applications from 42 leaders from the Opposition parties for joining the Congress.

“Gowda’s public remarks and the MLAs’ moves just reflect the fears, apprehensions and uncertainty in the state BJP unit. Because the future of these leaders is closely linked to the future of the BJP and what is happening in the party currently,” said a BJP source.

According to sources, at least six BJP MLAs might cross over to the Congress soon. “The Congress in its buoyant mood wants to prove a point. For D K Shivakumar, he can prove to his leadership that the Congress has paid back to the BJP in the same coin,” added the source.

The Congress had lost 14 of its MLAs in 2019 in the “Operation Kamala 2.0” allegedly conducted by the BJP to bring back the Yeddyurappa-led party dispensation to power after it failed to prove a majority after the 2018 polls due to the coming together of the Congress and the JD(S).

The BJP’s rivals use the term “Operation Kamala” to describe its alleged bids to make the lawmakers who have won on the tickets of other parties to defect to it bypassing the anti-defection law.

BJP sources in Karnataka said that despite the central leadership’s explanation that the BJP-JD(S) alliance would help the party to shore up its numbers in the Lok Sabha elections, the state leaders and cadre have “not been able to comprehend the move”. Both the parties have bitterly fought against each other in a number of constituencies in the past, they said.

At least three leaders from Karnataka said there had not been any detailed discussions with the state leaders over the issue.

With the BJP-JD(S) tie-up being aimed at rallying the support bases of both the parties – BJP’s core and Lingayat votes and the JD(S)’s Vokkaliga votes – for the Lok Sabha polls, the possibility of Union Minister Shobha Karandlaje, a Vokkaliga leader, being named as the state party chief has “diminished”, party sources said.

The alliance talks have also triggered rebellion in the JD(S) camp, with two of its Muslim leaders having resigned from the party. The JD(S) enjoys the backing of a section of the minority community in some of its strongholds.

“Karnataka BJP leaders are clueless about the central leadership’s plans for the state. The party has started preparation for the Lok Sabha elections in almost every state. But what strategy the BJP has for Karnataka is still unclear. The wait has been long,” said a party leader.

With inputs from Akram M