Not kingmaker, we will be king this time: HDK

Shyam Sundar Vattam | NT

Bengaluru:

With the Karnataka assembly polls barely five months away and the possibility of a fractured verdict looming, all eyes are on the Janata Dal(S) and its top leader, HD Kumaraswamy.  Will the former CM play the role of kingmaker again, as he did in 2006 and later in 2018, tying up first with the BJP and then with the Congress?

In an interview with News Trail, Kumaraswamy dispels all such assumptions and asserts that his party will win at least 85 to 90 seats, ensuring that it will be in the vying for the CM seat. The party is relying heavily on the Pancharathna Yatra to build a rapport with its workers and adherents, particularly in the Old Mysore region.Kumaraswamy feels that rather than focus on issues like corruption, the party should offer a development plank.

And so the JD(S) is promising voters free education, free healthcare, waiver of agriculture loans, employment to every family and a house for each family. The party also believes that the Muslim community will come out to support it in big numbers this time.