Janata Dal (Secular) will get working majority in Karnataka assembly polls: Gowda

H D Deve Gowda said they will do well in the May 10 polls thanks to his son and former chief minister H D Kumaraswamy’s work as the chief minister

Janata Dal (Secular) patriarch and former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda has said his party will get a “working majority” in the May 10 Karnataka assembly polls on the back of his son and former chief minister H D Kumaraswamy’s work as the two-time chief minister.

Former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda. (HT Photo)

He said people want to trust Kumaraswamy. “[That is because of] the work he has done as the CM [chief minister] with the BJP [Bharatiya Janata Party] and the Congress support,” said Gowda, 89, who has passed on the party baton to Kumaraswamy, in an interview with Hindustan Times.

“The fight is triangular. Naturally, [the] star [studded] campaigns are of the BJP and the Congress. Their leaders are coming here from all over the country. From our side, Kumaraswamy and I besides some former [state] ministers are working very hard on what we call the Pancharatna programme which has become very popular,” he said, referring to the five-point scheme Kumaraswamy announced at a rally in Mysuru last month.

The scheme includes loan waivers for women self-help groups, medical assistance to the tune of ₹40 lakh to check medical bankruptcy, bringing government English and Kannada-medium schools at par with private schools in all gram panchayats and setting up 30-bed hospitals with free dialysis and lab facilities in all panchayat centres.

Gowda said Kumaraswamy has toured about 118 constituencies to explain the attractive scheme. “This time I have personally taken the responsibility to go around in old Mysuru. I am addressing three public meetings every day. I plan to address about 40 meetings by the time the campaign comes to a close on May 8,” he said.

“The people who are suffering are convinced that the [five-point] programme will benefit them. That is a major development that has taken place” he said. “Today the Pancharatna he has brought is appreciated by people. I think he will get [the] working majority.”

JD (S) has a broader presence than is generally thought in Karnataka, where its stronghold of the old Mysuru region sends 64 lawmakers to the state assembly. Gowda’s Vokkaliga community is dominant in the region.

In the 2018 election, JD(S) got 26 seats from the region. The BJP bagged just 16 of the 64 seats even as it swept across central and coastal Karnataka. The Congress won 22 seats.

Vokkaligas (15%) and Lingayats (17%) are the state’s two influential communities that have dominated its politics for decades. Lingayats moved away from the Congress in the 1990s to the BJP while a significant chunk of Vokkaligas rallied behind JD(S).

Kumaraswamy first became the Karnataka chief minister in February 2006 with the BJP’s support. He refused to transfer power to the BJP as per a power-sharing agreement and quit over a year later.

Kumaraswamy became the chief minister for the second time in 2018 even as the BJP emerged as the single-largest party with 104 seats but fell nine short of a simple majority in the 224-member assembly, where one member is nominated. The Congress won 78 seats and two more later in by-polls. But it offered JD (S), which managed to get just 37 seats, the chief minister’s post to keep the BJP out of power.

The alliance government fell after it lost the trust vote in the assembly in June 2020. A string of resignations by lawmakers of the Congress and JD (S) reduced the 15-month-old coalition between two erstwhile rivals to a minority and paved the return of the BJP to power.

JD (S) has held the key to government formation in Karnataka because of successive fractured mandates. Its vote share remained around 20% in hung verdicts in 2004 and 2018.

The Congress, which is in desperate search of the elixir of an electoral win, is this time seen to be a frontrunner in the three-cornered contest.

The ruling BJP is hoping to return to power in the key southern state. The loss of power would mean losing its only toehold south of the Vindhyas.