No deal with BJP, says J D (S) Leader H.D. Kumaraswamy
NEW DELHI : JD(S) chief ministerial candidate H.D. Kumaraswamy vehemently denied that Mr. Modi’s praise for his father indicated any deal between his party and the BJP for a post-poll tie-up in case of a hung Assembly.
“The reason Prime Minister Modi praised my father was simply because, having been in the same seat now, he realises what my father went through and what all he did for the country, always putting the country’s interests first and never giving into partisan politics while he occupied the Prime Minister’s chair,” Mr. Kumaraswamy told to a English daiy “He now has correct information about my father’s term, and he has also realised how cabals can demolish a reputation.”
“All this does not have anything to do with any electoral alliance or anything. We are going to form the government on our own, without either the Congress or the BJP,” he said.
According to him, his party has been the victim of a sustained campaign by the Congress and even the BJP to imply that there was a secret understanding between it and the BJP, in order to damage the minority support that the JD(S) enjoys in parts of the State.
“On the one hand the Congress says that there is a solid minority consolidation behind them, on the other hand Chief Minister Siddaramaiah gets Congress president Rahul Gandhi to say that we are the ‘B’ team of the BJP. This clearly demonstrates that the Congress is rattled by the support we command. Otherwise what is the need to make such statements,” he said.
Mr. Kumaraswamy said that there was widespread unhappiness about Mr. Siddaramaiah’s government not just among the powerful Vokkaligas, particularly dominant in the Old Mysuru belt where the Janata Dal (S) is strong but also among other communities. “Of course Vokkaligas have suffered as have other communities,” he said.
Mr. Siddaramaiah’s decision to fight a second seat of Badami in Bagalkot is being seen by the Opposition as a way to offset the risk of fighting from Chamundeswari, where a strong Vokkaliga consolidation behind the Janata Dal (S) has made intelligence agencies dub the seat as “risky.”
Kumaraswamy certainly thinks so and has campaigned extensively there to build the contest between Mr. Siddaramaiah and G.T. Deve Gowda of the JD(S) as the “grudge match” of the polls.
Kumaraswamy also said that too much was being made about his father, H.D. Deve Gowda’s statement that he would disown Mr. Kumaraswamy if he went into a post-poll tie-up with the BJP.“That will never happen, because the question will never arise.
We are forming the government on our own. The people of Karnataka have seen the BJP and Congress governments and aspire for a government that will truly serve them, which is the Janata Dal (S) government,” he said.
Meanwhile, in a interview wit the Business line JD (S) Chief and Former Prime Minister H D Devegawda has said that I have extended my unconditional support to the Congress in not letting the BJP grow in Karnataka. It is the failure of the Congress that the BJP has become so big. If the BJP is as bad as the Congress, then can you support either after the elections?
The Congress wants to totally destroy the JD(S). Siddaramaiah is saying the JD(S) is aligning with the BJP. Has any other Congress leader said this? No. Siddaramaiah is spreading these canards because he is losing ground.
What he is doing is to consolidate the Muslims behind him by saying Gowda is going with the BJP. Everyone knows that even with a 13-party coalition, when Karunanidhi and [TDP President] N Chandrababu Naidu were against it, I [as prime minister] had dismissed the BJP government in Gujarat.What more is expected of me, to prove my secular credentials? I want to ask the Congress what they have done to prevent the BJP’s growth?
on Sunday , the PM had so much respect for Deve Gowda in public. For what? It is all politics. Of course, when I go to his residence and my knees have a problem, he will help me out. I always laugh and tell him, he doesn’t need to do that, the security personnel will help me out.it is for public consumption. It is politics. Yesterday, he was, of course, displaying respect for a former PM for public consumption he said. (With Inputs from The Hindu).
