Karnataka: Speculation rife over Congress-JD(S) alliance ahead of Assembly polls
BENGALURU: The outcome of the recent by-elections to Nanjangud and Gundlupet contains a significant political message: The BJP finds it hard to bloom when the Congress and JD(S) unite in Karnataka.
Prior to the bypoll, the Congress had worked out an unofficial 'gathbandhan' with the JD(S) to ensure the 'secular votes' do not get scattered. And it proved to be a masterstroke. The Congress managed to win both the seats by a huge margin. With this, the pressure is building up on the Congress to have a tie-up with the JD(S) to halt the BJP's electoral juggernaut.
The two parties learnt this bitter lesson from the defeat in the previous bypolls held last year when the Congress lost two of the three seats to the BJP, mainly due to division of secular votes. While the Congress managed to win Bidar, the BJP won Hebbal and Devadurga seats. The JD(S) stood third on all the seats though it managed to secure a significant number of votes.
BJP leader S Suresh Kumar said the possibility of a Congress-JD(S) alliance ahead of the 2018 assembly polls cannot be ruled out. "When the Congress had grown exponentially in the 1970s and 1980s, several parties had put up a united fight against it. The trend has reversed now with the BJP emerging stronger by the year. There's no question of secular or non-secular votes, it's only about the BJP and others,'' he added.
He claimed the BJP is already working out a strategy to fight the collective force of the Congress and the JD(S). "After facing a defeat against the Mahagathbandhan in Bihar, we put out a successful fight in Uttar Pradesh and other states by changing our strategies and Karnataka too, we will follow a new model,'' he added.
But senior Congress leader and former chairman of the state legislative council B L Shankar ruled out the possibility of a tie-up with the JD(S). He said the Congress can't afford to go with the JD(S) and fight the assembly polls as it would send out a wrong message. "It's akin to accepting our defeat even before facing the war,'' he added.
However, he said it's too early to discuss such issues because the outcome of Gujarat assembly elections to be held later this year would reconfigure the political equations in Karnataka.
A senior JD(S) leader said his party cannot afford to have a tie-up before the polls because it would lose the advantage of forming post-poll alliance with the BJP.
Prior to the bypoll, the Congress had worked out an unofficial 'gathbandhan' with the JD(S) to ensure the 'secular votes' do not get scattered. And it proved to be a masterstroke. The Congress managed to win both the seats by a huge margin. With this, the pressure is building up on the Congress to have a tie-up with the JD(S) to halt the BJP's electoral juggernaut.
The two parties learnt this bitter lesson from the defeat in the previous bypolls held last year when the Congress lost two of the three seats to the BJP, mainly due to division of secular votes. While the Congress managed to win Bidar, the BJP won Hebbal and Devadurga seats. The JD(S) stood third on all the seats though it managed to secure a significant number of votes.
BJP leader S Suresh Kumar said the possibility of a Congress-JD(S) alliance ahead of the 2018 assembly polls cannot be ruled out. "When the Congress had grown exponentially in the 1970s and 1980s, several parties had put up a united fight against it. The trend has reversed now with the BJP emerging stronger by the year. There's no question of secular or non-secular votes, it's only about the BJP and others,'' he added.
He claimed the BJP is already working out a strategy to fight the collective force of the Congress and the JD(S). "After facing a defeat against the Mahagathbandhan in Bihar, we put out a successful fight in Uttar Pradesh and other states by changing our strategies and Karnataka too, we will follow a new model,'' he added.
But senior Congress leader and former chairman of the state legislative council B L Shankar ruled out the possibility of a tie-up with the JD(S). He said the Congress can't afford to go with the JD(S) and fight the assembly polls as it would send out a wrong message. "It's akin to accepting our defeat even before facing the war,'' he added.
However, he said it's too early to discuss such issues because the outcome of Gujarat assembly elections to be held later this year would reconfigure the political equations in Karnataka.
A senior JD(S) leader said his party cannot afford to have a tie-up before the polls because it would lose the advantage of forming post-poll alliance with the BJP.