In a major development, former Karnataka Chief Minister, Kumaraswamy has ruled out a pre-poll alliance with the Congress. The former alliance partners will, therefore, contest independently in the upcoming polls in all the 17 Assembly constituencies which have fallen vacant after the recent political developments in Karnataka which had led to the disqualification of 17 MLAs belonging to the Congress and the JD(S) by the then Speaker K R Ramesh Kumar.
It must be noted that Kumaraswamy addressed a party rally at K R Pet, Mandya district, where the former chief minister broke down and became emotional. During this rally, there were loud protests against any tie-up with the Congress. Kumaraswamy also said that stiff resistance within his party forced him to take the decision of fielding his party nominees from the 17 constituencies. He said, “I did not feel bad when I quit as Chief Minister after the motion of confidence was defeated because of the absence of these 17 rebels.”
HD Kumaraswamy targeted disqualified legislator Narayana Gowda and held him responsible for the fall of the Congress-JD(S) government. It must be noted that Narayana Gowda had stepped up his attack against JD (S) patriarch, HD Deve Gowda and other JD (S) leaders after turning rebel. Kumaraswamy has also ruled out the possibility of his son, Nikhil Kumaraswamy, returning to electoral politics during the upcoming by-polls. He said that a party worker would be fielded from the K R Pet assembly seat in order to teach Narayana Gowda a lesson.
It must be noted that after several days of political drama, the Congress-JD(S) coalition government which had come to power last year finally fell. Kumaraswamy lost the trust vote 105-99 in favour of the BJP. Ever since the reports of Congress and JD(S) MLAs tendering their resignations surfaced, it had become clear that the Karnataka government was not going to survive for very long. The coalition government had fallen into a political crisis after reports of 16 MLAs tendering their resignations had come up.
With Kumaraswamy’s remarks, the Congress-JD(S) alliance which had already lost its steam has officially come to an end. The two parties will field candidates against each other in the constituencies going to by-polls. This translates into a direct advantage for the BJP with the anti-BJP votes getting divided. The BJP already enjoys massive popularity in Karnataka. The Lok Sabha election results evidenced BJP’s popularity. At that time, Congress and JD(S) had entered into a pre-poll alliance but they still failed to give even a tough fight to the BJP. Now, that the two parties are contesting separately, it makes things even better for the BJP. The by-polls might as well turn out to be a cakewalk for the BJP.
