Karnataka

Insiders oppose Congress-JD(S) tie-up

BANGALORE: The Congress and the Janata Dal (Secular) have a “common enemy” in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) but are yet to initiate steps at coming together to check the increasing strength of the BJP which recently swept the by-elections to the Karnataka Legislative Council.

While the Janata Dal(S) leadership is yet to state its views on forging at least a temporary understanding with the Congress to jointly face the by-elections to the eight Legislative Assembly constituencies to be held shortly, a section in the Congress, led by former Deputy Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, has taken the stand that the Congress should not have any tie-up with the Janata Dal(S).

It is common knowledge that Mr. Siddaramaiah and his group have been against the Janata Dal(S) since they walked out of that party. For the Janata Dal(S), any alignment with the Congress would mean a ready lever to isolate the Siddaramaiah group from the Congress.

Mr. Siddaramiah has been staying away from important meetings of the Congress for over a month particularly after the appointment of R.V. Deshpande as Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee president and D.K. Shivakumar as working president.

On Thursday, the Siddaramaiah group met at a hotel and decided to seek an important party position for Mr. Siddaramaiah while simultaneously stating that there was no question of the group leaving the party.

It is the unyielding Mr. Siddaramaiah who is engaging the attention of the Congress leaders. Already rattled by “Operation Kamala” of the BJP, which weaned away seven MLAs from the Congress and the Janata Dal(S), the Congress is facing almost a revolt from Mr. Siddaramaiah, a backward class leader who enjoys clout with the Kuruba community in particular. Mr. Siddaramaiah has neither visited the Congress office nor attended any meeting convened by the party in the last three months, much to the chagrin of the leaders and workers who have hoped that his place in the AHINDA movement might improve the party position.

Meanwhile, sources in the Janata Dal(S) said that a section of the Congress leaders are in touch with former Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy who was recently elevated as president of the Karnataka unit of the party.

In a recent statement, Mr. Deve Gowda warned his party workers, including Mr. Kumaraswamy, against hobnobbing with the Congress leaders, stating that action would be taken against them if they continued to violate party discipline.

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