Family is central to JD(S)

The Janata Dal-Secular (JDS) is fighting a tough existential battle. Having compromised on its ideology i.e., secularism, it is facing the risk of being subsumed by the Hindutva behemoth, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

It was considerably weakened after the last Assembly election when it could muster only 19 seats in the 224-member house, nearly half of what it won in 2018.

It lost heavily in its citadel in the Cauvery basin districts, much of those constituencies from where it lost, turning to the Indian National Congress.

Analysis of the poll outcome suggests that shift of Muslim votes away from the party in an election where voters were in a mood to punish the BJP for its misrule and communal polarisation proved to be the nemesis for the party.

The pre-poll alliance with the BJP for the 2024 elections sets the final seal on its ideological pretences vis-à-vis secularism.

The party too is keen to shed it at a time when Muslims see in the Siddramaiah-DK Shivakumar led Congress a more formidable bulwark against the communal forces.

Ideology apart, centrality of the family of former prime minister H. D. Devegowda and protection of family fortunes of Mr. H. D. Kumaraswamy, scion of the family, seem to be dictating the current stances of the party.

HDK has been kept on tenterhooks by the Union dispensation’s intimidatory use of Enforcement Directorate, Income Tax and other such agencies against political rivals.

Pressure seem to be on the party supremo to toe the line dictated from Delhi. The gratuitous incline of the JDS towards the saffron parivar explains much of its current political thinking.

The ease with which the family hitched its bandwagon with the BJP, side-lining the party president C. M. Ibrahim, offers ample evidence of family calling the shot when it comes to taking crucial decisions.

No wonder then why senior leaders like Ibrahim and C. K. Nanu have taken up cudgels in calling the bluff of the controlling family.

Having dropped all ideological pretences with regards to secularism, the JDS may be engaged in a last ditch attempt to secure some legislative positions for titular heads within the party, nothing more.

As far as substance is concerned, the party is almost over.