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Deve Gowda trains guns against Congress over BJP ‘B-Team’ remarks
The statement come even as the Congress continues to allege that the JD(S) is tacitly helping the BJP by fielding a Muslim candidate in both bypoll constituencies
Former prime minister and Janata Dal (Secular) national president HD Deve Gowda on Friday lashed out at the Congress party for allegations that the regional outfit has fielded Muslim candidates in the October 30 bypolls to help the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Gowda said that the Congress acts like it has taken the “contract” of Muslims and their welfare in the state.
“A Muslim has won there (Sindgi) before. They (Congress) say that we are brokers helping the BJP win. We will all go and camp there. Go to every house. Tell them what I have done. Tell them (electorate) that I have come to your doorstep at the last stage of my life and ask them to help my candidate win,” Gowda said on Friday in Bengaluru.
The statements come even as the Congress continues to allege that the JD(S) is tacitly helping the BJP by fielding a Muslim candidate in both bypoll constituencies in an effort to split the minority vote.
“We will put in all our efforts to see if we can swim against this tide (of going against the two national parties),” he said.
Sindgi MLA, MC Managuli from the JD(S), died this January.
CM Udasi died this June, necessitating the bypolls in Hanagal.
However, Managuli’s son has since joined the Congress and has been announced the party candidate from the constituency on October 5, according to the All India Congress Committee.
Gowda said that Congress continues to poach its candidates and then speak against a party that gave all of them (referring to Siddaramaiah) political birth.
“JD(S)’ target is the Congress and not the BJP,” Siddaramaiah, the leader of the opposition, said on Thursday. He implied that the JD(S) fields minority candidates to help the BJP and that the former is the latter’s B-Team’.
“I am not saying that you (JDS) should not field a minority candidate. But they don’t do it where they are supposed to,” Siddaramaiah said. He added that the JD(S) will not field a Muslim candidate in Mandya and Hassan, the stronghold of the regional outfit, since their main support base, the Vokkaligas are found there in large numbers.
The bypolls come at a time when the Basavaraj Bommai-led BJP government has been facing increasing pressure from Hindu groups over restrictions on Durga Puja celebrations and temple demolition in Nanjangud. The Bommai government is also under pressure from dominant communities like the Panchamasali, the largest sub-sect within the Lingayats, to change their reservation status and continues to give the administration new deadlines to yield to their demands.
The BJP is hoping to win both seats to add to its tally while the Congress is trying to get some momentum to its 2023 assembly election campaign. The JD(S) has seen its numbers dip, first with the defection in 2019 and now with the imminent exit of at least three more legislators before the next elections.
