Karnataka JD(S) VP resigns after party join hands with BJP

Shafiulla said that he had opted to stay outside the party for the period during which our state unit of the party had joined with the BJP

Days after Janata Dal (Secular) joined hands with the Bharatiya Janata Party ahead of the ensuing 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the party's state unit Vice President Syed Shafiulla Saheb has decided to cut his ties with the party.

BJP president JP Nadda, JD(S) leader HD Kumaraswamy and home minister Amit Shah on Friday. (PTI)

Shafiulla, in his resignation letter to the JD(S) Karnataka president said that he had opted to stay outside the party for the period during which our state unit of the party had joined with the BJP to form the state government.

"I would like to state that I have worked hard and served the party in order to serve the society and the community only because our party believes and was standing on the secular credentials, except when our leader Sri Kumara Swamy had earlier joined hands with the BJP to form the government in the state. I also like to mention that, I had opted to stay outside the party for the period during which our state unit of the party had joined with the BJP to form the state government," Shafiulla Saheb said in the letter.

"Sir, since the party's senior leaders are now deciding to join hands with the BJP, I have been left with no option but to tender my resignation to the party's senior vice president office of the state and also to my primary membership of the party," he added.

Apart from them, many leaders including the president of the Janata Dal (Secular) Shivamogga, M Srikanth and UT Ayesha Farzana have also resigned from the party, sources said.

The Janata Dal (Secular) of former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda on Friday announced an alliance with the BJP in Karnataka and formally joined the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

JD(S) leader and former Karnataka chief minister HD Kumaraswamy made the announcement after meeting Union Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP chief JP Nadda in the national capital.

The JD(S) had aligned with the Congress in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, however, the parties faced a drubbing as the BJP swept 25 out of the 28 seats in Karnataka and even an independent candidate supported by the BJP won from the Mandya constituency.