Behind Kumaraswamy's new strategy is his fear that more prominent members of his party will defect to the BJP.
Former Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy on Saturday said that he does not want the ruling BJP government to fall owing to the issue of flood relief. With the bye-elections slated to be held on December 5, there is much pressure on the BJP to win at least eight out of the 15 segments to retain power. Behind Kumaraswamy's new strategy of wishing well for the BJP government is his fear that more prominent members of his party will defect to the BJP. Several disgruntled JD(S) leaders including party loyalist and Chamundeshwari MLA GT Devegowda are reportedly in talks with the saffron party. “The bye-elections are coming up and we will contest independently. We don’t want another election and the current government should not fall or be unstable because there is much work to be done in terms of flood relief. For the sake of the victims, if need be, I am willing to support the government in any way I can,” he told the media on Saturday during an interaction at Press Club. Soon after Kumaraswamy’s statement, JD(S) MLA Basavaraj Horatti on Sunday said that Kumaraswamy may be willing to hold talks with the BJP to extend his support. “Kumaraswamy does not want the government to fall and he may be willing to hold talks with BJP to extend his support,” Basavaraj Horatti said. These ambiguous statements from two top leaders of the JD(S) has led to speculation that the JD(S) may be warming up to the BJP in Karnataka. The BJP and JD(S) had formed an alliance in 2006 after Kumaraswamy took several JD(S) MLAs to a resort and orchestrated the break up of the Congress-JD(S) coalition. At the time, Kumaraswamy and the then Deputy Chief Minister Siddaramaiah (who was with the JD(S)), had a massive fallout. Siddaramaiah had quit JD(S) and had threatened to break up the party. Sources with the JD(S) say that several disgruntled MLCs and legislators have openly expressed their concerns regarding Kumaraswamy’s alleged mismanagement of party affairs to supremo Deve Gowda and have threatened to resign and join the BJP. MLC Basavaraj Horatti has on multiple occasions expressed his displeasure over Kumaraswamy’s ways of handling party affairs. “GT Devegowda is likely to quit and join the BJP. If the BJP does not win enough seats on bye-polls, they may ask a few JD(S) MLAs to resign to balance the numbers. Then, there will have to be another round of bye-polls that Kumaraswamy wants to avoid. Hence, he wants to hold talks with BJP regarding offering support in exchange for not poaching JD(S) MLAs,” a JD(S) leader told TNM. However, BJP sources say that the party does not want to forge any kind of agreement with the JD(S) as past experience has made Yediyurappa wary. When the JD(S)-BJP alliance was forged in 2006, Kumaraswamy and Yediyurappa had agreed to be Chief Minister for 20 months each. Kumaraswamy became the CM first and when his 20-month period was up, he refused to let go of the Chief Minister’s chair. The alliance broke up soon after.
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