The simmering discontent within the Janata Dal (Secular) seems to be coming out in the open. A few months after the party MLCs met to express dissatisfaction over the way senior leaders treated them, it was the turn of former legislator and party’s working president Madhu Bangarappa, who on Monday blamed the party seniors for leaders quitting the party.
“The party leaders are taking wrong decisions. If action is not taken to remove confusion, the party may face a major tragedy,” he told presspersons. Identifying himself as an “inactive leader” in the JD(S), he said: “I will not resign on my own. If they want, they can ask for my resignation or remove me. The party workers and I are hurt. Workers have lost confidence in the party and it is not responsive to workers.”
Mr. Madhu was responding to the statement of former Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy, who recently said that those who want to leave the party to achieve bigger things could go, and that he could not be convincing them.
His outburst in public comes close on the heels of another party leader and former Minister G.T. Deve Gowda going against the party’s decision to not participate in the election to elect an MLC.
He turned his ire at the nomination of Ramesh Gowda and Dharme Gowda, who are currently MLCs. “Who decided on nominating Mr. Ramesh Gowda? The party should seek his resignation. Similarly, Mr. Dharme Gowda wanted to leave the party. Even he should not have been made MLC,” he alleged.
Mr. Madhu said that Basavaraj Horatti was sad while he stepped down from the post of Legislative Council’s chairmanship. “If (former JD(S) State president) H. Vishwanath was made Minister, he would not have quit the party. Many in the party worked to bring a wedge between Mr. Vishwanath and Mr. Kumaraswamy. I had tried to convince Mr. Vishwanath not to quit the party.”
Meanwhile, a couple of legislators told The Hindu that Mr. Madhu was airing the problems within the party. “He is upset that the party did not identify him. He was forced to contest elections twice for Lok Sabha.”
A legislator said that most party leaders and workers are upset at the way they were ignored during the 14-month tenure of JD(S)-Congress coalition government, and even now the leadership, including former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda and Mr. Kumaraswamy, is not trying to address the disenchantment among the leaders and workers.