The BJP’s critics have for long accused the party of indulging in communal politics. Now, voices within the party are levelling the same allegation.
“I am surprised that a secular party has decided to join hands with a communal party,” B.N. Bache Gowda, the MP of Chikkaballapur in Karnataka, wondered aloud before reporters on Friday while expressing dismay at the probability of an alliance between the BJP and the Janata Dal Secular.
Gowda’s comments further cemented the popular perception that not all is well within the BJP state unit after the humiliating loss to the Congress earlier this year.
He was referring to how the BJP and the JDS were close to inking a deal ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls when the former is likely to set aside a few seats in its strongholds, expecting to forge a formidable partnership against the Congress.
Gowda attributed the BJP’s indecision on appointing a new state president and leader of Opposition to the alliance in the works.
“It’s been four months since the Congress came to power in the state. But the BJP has not been able to appoint a state president or even a leader of Opposition, triggering rumours about the reason,” Gowda said, alluding to how his party was waiting to formalise an alliance with the JDS before deciding on the key posts.
Gowda has been a thorn in the side of his party ever since his son Sharath Bache Gowda decided to contest as an Independent from Hoskote in the 2019 by-elections necessitated by defections that brought down the JDS-Congress coalition government helmed by H.D. Kumaraswamy.
Sharath had dealt a huge blow to Congress turncoat M.T.B. Nagaraj, who had defected to the BJP along with 13 of his party colleagues. Sharath joined the Congress in February 2021 and is currently a party MLA.
The BJP was at pains to respond to the “communal” description from Gowda Sr, who is one of the senior-most leaders in the state.
Kodagu-Mysore Lok Sabha member Pratap Simha deflected reporters’ queries on Saturday by pointing out how the Congress is allied with parties like the Indian Union Muslim League in Kerala and the Shiv Sena in Maharashtra.
“Who said we are communal? Is it the Congress or the BJP that is in alliance with the (Indian Union) Muslim League in Kerala? Was it the Congress or some other party that formed a government with the Shiv Sena, which they once described as an extreme Hindutva party?” Simha said.
The speculation about the BJP-JDS alliance stemmed from party veteran B.S. Yediyurappa’s statement on Friday that the partnership would be announced soon. “The BJP and the JDS are about to forge an alliance very soon and Amit Shah has set aside four seats for the JDS,” Yediyurappa said.
The JDS had earlier formed a coalition government with the BJP in February 2006 in a power-sharing arrangement. But then chief minister Kumaraswamy walked out of the alliance after completing his share of 20 months in power.
That the JDS was open to an alliance with the BJP was evident even before the recent state elections in which the JDS managed to win just 19 seats — down from 31 in 2018.
JDS lawmaker G.T. Deve Gowda admitted that an alliance with the BJP was a matter of survival. “Such an alliance is inevitable for the very survival of the JDS,” he told reporters.
