Eye on 2023 poll, JD(S) cosies up to Cong

Shyam Sundar Vattam | NT
Bengaluru

Despite being pilloried by Congress leaders like Siddaramaiah for ‘going soft’ on the ruling BJP, former CM and JD(S) leader H.D. Kumarawamy is keeping his avenues open with the Congress Party and has been speaking in support of former AICC President Rahul Gandhi who is being grilled by ED sleuths in connection with the alleged financial irregularities in the National Herald case.

Recently, Congress leaders not only refused to consider the proposal put forth by the JD(S) for mutual support in the election to four Rajya Sabha seats but also did not bother to reply to Kumaraswamy on his support offer.

The AICC President Sonia Gandhi did not entertain the request made by JD(S) supremo H.D. Deve Gowda for going together in the Rajya Sabha polls to ‘keep out’ the communal BJP. In fact Delhi Congress leaders had thought of going with the JD(S) in the Rajya Sabha polls, but it was stoutly opposed by Siddaramaiah who threatened to stay ‘neutral’ in case they finalised a tie-up.

Seeing the JD(S) cosying up to the Congress Party, the ruling BJP has kept the JD(S) at a distance and did not bother to contact it during the RS polls either. Fast losing ground with many of its MLAs eyeing greener pastures, the JD(S) is clutching at the straws to save itself from a poll disaster in 2023 and wants to be in the good books of the Congress at least to ensure that it retains its current seats in the State Assembly.

Congress leaders are however optimistic of a good poll show on their own after bagging two seats in the biennial election to the legislative Council from the graduates’ and teachers’ constituency, that too in strongholds of the BJP.

On Wednesday, Kumaraswamy told reporters in Hassan that “in the name of an inquiry by the ED, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi is being tortured. Do you need five days for a probe when the ED has all the documents? The enquiry can be finished within half an hour. This is being done purposefully. The inquiry was taken up on the basis of a complaint given by BJP Rajya Sabha MP Subramanian Swamy. Why was no enquiry initiated into the 40 per cent commission charges against the State government by Karnataka State Contractors’ Association?”.

By making such ‘Congressfriendly statements,’ the JD(S) is trying its best to mend its fences with the grand old party, said sources adding it remains to be seen if the Congress will bite the bait.