‘Illusion’ says Siddaramaiah on Gowda’s JD(S) will get majority in Karnataka claim

Siddaramaiah, who has been addressing four public gatherings daily despite a painful herpes infection on his left arm, said Kumaraswamy lost power in 2020 as he did not take his lawmakers and workers into confidence

Congress leader Siddaramaiah has dismissed as an “illusion” and “pipedream” former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda’s claim that Janata Dal (Secular) or JD(S) will get a “working majority” in the May 10 Karnataka assembly polls.

Congress leader Siddaramaiah (File Photo)

He said Gowda’s projection that his party will win 123 of 224 seats does not add up. “Is it possible? In 2004, we won only 59 seats when I myself, former Union minister CM Ibrahim...Madadevappa [former state minister], and Satish Jharkaholi [now Congress’s state working president] were with the JD(S),” Siddaramaiah said in an interview with Hindustan Times.

He added after he was expelled from JD(S) in 2005, Gowda’s son, H D Kumaraswamy, became the chief minister with the support of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). “He was the CM [chief minister] for 20 months. Then elections took place. How many seats did they win? Down from 59, they got only 28. In 2013, they got 40 seats and in 2018, when Kumaraswamy became CM again [with Congress support], they won only 37 seats. How can they possibly win the numbers Gowda is now claiming?” asked Siddaramaiah, a former chief minister and Congress’s foremost campaigner.

In an interview with HT last week, Gowda said JD(S) will get the “working majority” on the back of his son’s work as the two-time chief minister.

Gowda said he has taken charge in old Mysuru, where he was addressing three public meetings every day and planned to hold about 40 by the time the campaign comes to a close on May 8.

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, which accounts for the state’s 15% population, 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.

Siddaramaiah, who has been addressing four public gatherings daily despite a painful herpes infection on his left arm, said Kumaraswamy lost power in 2020 as he did not take his lawmakers and workers into confidence. “As CM, he lived in Taj Westend for the 14 months he was in power. How can anyone run a government from a hotel? The MLAs got fed up with him. They became unhappy. That is why they all went with the BJP.”

Siddaramaiah maintained Kumaraswamy had no one but himself to blame. He was responding to a question about Gowda dropping hints suggesting Siddaramaiah was responsible for the fall of their government in 2020.

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. JD(S)’s 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.