Bengaluru: R.M. Manjunatha Gowda, a former close aide of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) state president B.S. Yeddyurappa, on Tuesday formally joined the Janata Dal (Secular) or JDS, months before the Karnataka assembly polls, scheduled to be held later this year.
Gowda, who unsuccessfully contested for the assembly seat from Thirthahalli in 2013 on a Karnataka Janata Party (KJP) ticket, had left the BJP along with Yeddyurappa in 2012. Gowda lost to Congress’s Kimmane Ratnakar by a thin margin in 2013.
Gowda, who started his political career with the JDS, first switched to the Congress, then the BJP, the KJP and then re-joined the Congress in 2015.
Gowda’s switch to JDS comes at a time when leaders across parties are trading loyalties and exploring opportunities with other outfits for reasons, including being sidelined, ticket distribution or personal grouse with top leadership.
The assembly elections in Karnataka are also the last major polls before 2019 (Lok Sabha elections). Political parties are trying to improve their seat share in 2018 to try and put up a better performance in next year’s general elections.
Though Gowda severed his ties with Yeddyurappa after his return to the Congress in 2015, his entry to the JDS boosts the prospects of the regional party in Shimoga district where it won three of the six assembly seats in 2013. Yeddyurappa was the sole winner for the KJP (which later merged with the BJP). All three political parties have seen lateral movement in recent months.
Two JDS legislators—Manappa Vajjal an Shivaraj Patil—on Thursday joined the BJP, sparking angry exchanges between the top leadership of both parties, each accusing the other of poaching candidates in unwinnable constituencies.
After their induction, Yeddyurappa claimed that there was a big list of legislators wanting to join the BJP and that this was only the beginning, Press Trust of India reported on 18 January.
The BJP, in the past, has been accused of trying to poach legislators from other parties with money and other promises—which was titled “Operation Kamala” by the political opposition.
Analysts say that bringing in strong candidates in weak constituencies is an inorganic way to try to better its seat count, even if it means upsetting existing leaders or their supporters.
Harish Ramaswamy, political analyst and professor at the Karnatak University, Dharwad, pointed out to a changing trend of leaders leaving the BJP for other parties in recent months as compared to last year where the saffron outfit had become a destination for dissenters from other parties. Veteran leaders like S.M. Krishna and V. Srinivas Prasad had moved to the BJP early last year, ending decades of association with the Congress.