Worried about hung Assembly in Karnataka, BJP and Congress take aim at JD(S)

From Amit Shah to Siddaramaiah and D K Shivakumar, national parties' leaders urge voters not to choose JD(S); regional party hits back, "We will grow the JDS as an alternative to the BJP. The Congress is fading away."

Former Karnataka Chief Minister and JD(S) leader HD Kumaraswamy. (File)

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Ahead of the Assembly polls, both national parties in the fray in Karnataka — the ruling BJP and the opposition Congress — seem to have arrived at the realisation that the only way either of them can win a clear majority is by ensuring that the third force in the state — the regional Janata Dal (Secular) party — is restricted from winning many seats.

In a sign that both parties are apprehensive of the 2023 Karnataka polls throwing up a hung verdict, like in 2004, 2008 and 2018, the BJP and Congress are imploring voters not to vote for the JDS. Over the last few days, BJP and Congress leaders have effectively said at pre-election rallies in two different regions that the JDS is the fly in the ointment to their prospects.

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At an election rally in Belagavi this weekend, Union Home Minister Amit Shah made a plea to maximise BJP wins in seats in the region, in order to ensure the party wins a clear majority. In 2004, 2008 as well as 2018, the BJP emerged as the single largest party in Karnataka, but fell short of the halfway mark of 113 seats in the 224-member Assembly, forcing it into a post-poll alliance with the JDS in 2006, and inducing defections in 2008 and 2018, to assume power.

“On the one hand, there is a party that wants to win 25 to 30 seats and ride on the Congress cart to run the government and perpetrate dynastic politics that disrespects the people of Karnataka – that’s the JDS,” Shah said on January 28 at the Belagavi rally, while positioning the BJP as patriotic and nationalistic.

“The Congress and JDS look like two different parties but I want to tell the people of Karnataka that every vote cast for the JDS will ultimately go to the Congress. It would only help the Congress achieve victory,” he said, while calling for BJP wins in at least 16 of the 18 seats in the district.

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A day earlier, former Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah of the Congress was heard asking voters in the Mandya region — where the JDS had won seven out of seven seats in 2018 — not to support the JDS in the 2023 polls and to choose the Congress as a viable option.

“Last time, out of the seven seats in this region you did not give us even one seat. All were won by the JDS. This time that should not happen. Will you do it again? You have to give us five to six of the seven seats in Mandya,” Siddaramaiah said at the Vokkaliga community stronghold that consistently backs former PM H D Deve Gowda’s JDS.

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“I am telling you this after feeling the pulse of the state. As certain as the sun rises in the east, the Congress will return to power in Karnataka. You should also be a part of the government by voting for the Congress,” Siddaramaiah said.

“The JDS will not come to power. Kumaranna (JDS leader H D Kumaraswamy) keeps saying he will get 123. When we were all together we could win only 58 seats. They later fell to 29. If they win 20 to 22 seats it will be too much. Do you want to trust them?” he said.

State Congress president D K Shivakumar, who is a Vokkaliga, also implored Mandya voters to shift their loyalty to the Congress in the 2023 polls. “We stood in support of the JDS last time in order to prevent a communal party (the BJP) from coming to power. But he (Kumaraswamy) could not hold on to power. I am asking you as your son. I am asking you as the son of Doddalahalli Kempegowda. I am asking you as the president of the Congress. I am asking you by falling at your feet,” Shivakumar said.

The JDS, which is playing safe and hoping to win just enough seats to force the BJP or the Congress into a coalition with it, reacted angrily to Congress and Siddaramaiah’s calls for the Mandya voters to shift their loyalty to the Congress.

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“They are saying that JDS will not come to power and so people should not vote for us. The factionalism in the Congress will not allow the party to come to power. Their leaders are not able to look into the faces of each other. They have no capability to control their own party and they are talking about my party,” Kumaraswamy said.