Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Friday said he is not bothered about the poll alliance between the Opposition parties BJP and the JD(S) in Karnataka for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, claiming that the people will back the ruling Congress party.
Reacting to the announcement by former Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa that the BJP will have an understanding with the former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda-led JD(S) for the 2024 general elections, Mr. Siddaramaiah said:“Whether they have an alliance or fight separately, I am not bothered. People are with us. They will vote for us.”
Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar termed the development as “not new”. “Let them do it (alliance). Earlier too, they had done it when BJP leader and MLA R. Ashok and Mr. Kumaraswamy had come together in the previous (BJP-JD(S) coalition) government.”
‘How does ideology work?’
“Nothing wrong... Let the JD(S) leaders do anything for survival. But my question is how does their ideology work. Mr. Deve Gowda in earlier situations had ruled out an alliance with the BJP,” the KPCC chief said.
Raising questions on survival of the JD(S) in the future, Mr. Shivakumar said: “It is left to them. They would have built a party based on an ideology... I don’t know what will happen to their party, their legislators and former legislators. I wish them all the best.”
The BJP had swept the 2019 Lok Sabha polls in Karnataka by winning 25 seats, while an independent Sumalatha Ambareesh, backed by it, won in one seat in Mandya. The Congress and the JD(S) won one seat each. The JD(S) contested the 2019 Lok Sabha polls in alliance with the Congress, as both parties were then running a coalition government led by H.D. Kumaraswamy.
