The Hindu : New Delhi News : BJP-JD(U) alliance in tatters

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Saturday, Apr 19, 2008
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New Delhi

BJP-JD(U) alliance in tatters

Neena Vyas

JD(U) demands that it be given 25 seats; BJP ready to offer only 10

Five rounds of talks yield no breakthrough
JD(U) names candidates for 24 constituencies

NEW DELHI: The Bharatiya Janata Party-Janata Dal (United) alliance in Karnataka has been virtually abandoned with the JD(U) on Friday releasing its first list of candidates for 24 seats. The BJP has already declared 185 candidates in three lists.

Senior JD(U) leaders here indicated that the JD(U) would contest around 40 to 50 seats. And by no means would it be a “friendly contest”. “Aar paar ki ladai hogi” (it will be a fight to the finish), sources said.

Five rounds of talks between the two parties have yielded no breakthrough, with the BJP ready to offer only four seats from the list of 25 initially given by the JD(U). It was also admitted that the JD(U) would have settled for some specified seats where the party had credible candidates. Although at one point the BJP seemed ready to part with 10 seats, except for four the rest were seats the JD (U) did not want.

Over several decades the original Janata Dal has split several times. But party leaders cannot forget that it was a force in Karnataka, with several Chief Ministers from the Janata family — Ramakrishna Hegde (1983), S.R. Bommai (1985), H.D. Deve Gowda (1994) and J.H. Patel (1996).

Said a senior JD(U) leader, “The Janata Dal was the main opposition party in Karnataka for many decades. Its base was among the Lingayats, the Vokkaligas, Kurubas, other backward castes and Muslims. It is this base that the BJP has slowly captured and reduced our space.”

Punjab example

The party expected “big brother” BJP to be more generous, as the Shiromani Akali Dal was to the BJP in Punjab despite the fact that in the 2000 Assembly elections the BJP had won just four of some 20 odd-seats that it contested. “In Karnataka the BJP is pointing out that we won only five of 25 seats we contested in alliance during the last Assembly elections. Was that logic used against them by the Akalis in Punjab? Also, in the last Assembly elections in Karnataka, the BJP contested 198 seats, winning less than 40 per cent.”

What has disconcerted the JD(U) leadership is that after BJP’s president Rajnath Singh himself announced that there would be a BJP-JD(U) alliance in Karnataka, the BJP State unit has worked to completely sabotage it, offering terms that were simply not acceptable.

At the moment the mood in the JD(U) is sombre. It is ready to hit back in Bihar where it has an upper hand. And the BJP’s grouse is that in a spate of some 12 years the party has become the junior partner in Bihar where the JD(U) has grown at its expense. “In 1995, the then Samata Party (which later became the JD-U) had only six seats when the BJP had 36 in the Bihar Assembly,” said a BJP leader.

JD(U) list

Bangalore Special Correspondent writes:

With the alliance unlikely to continue, the JD(U) released its list of candidates for 24 Assembly constituencies in the State.

The list was released to the press in Delhi on Friday hours before the State JD(U) delegation was to return.

The list has five Scheduled Caste candidates, four Scheduled Tribe candidates, three candidates from the Other Backward Classes and three minority candidates.

Many prominent leaders such as State JD(U) president B. Somashekar (Malavalli - SC), the former MLA J.C. Madhuswamy (Chikkanayakanahalli), Mallikarjuna Bommai (Hebbal - Bangalore ), Michael Fernandes (Sarvajnanagar - Bangalore) and the former Mayor B.V. Putte Gowda (Vijayanagar - Bangalore) figure in the list. of candidates.

The other prospective candidates are C. Veeranna ( Madhugiri), Mohammad Nazeer Ahmad (Shantinagar - Bangalore), Bhagirathi Nayak (Challakere - ST), Sundarappa (Chickpet - Bangalore), V. Venkatesh (KGF - SC), Ramachandraiah G.V. (K.R. Puram), Siddaramappa Dangapur (Afzalpur), Shashi Tavaregere (Bijapur), Srinivas (Devanahalli - SC), Lokpal Jain (Tarikere), Francis D’Souza/Dharmendra (Mangalore South), Jayachandra (Kolar), L.S. Kumaraswamy (Govindarajanagar - Bangalore), Mahadevappa (Raichur), G. Prakash (K.R. Nagara), Chakravarthy Nayak (Kampli - ST), Aravind (Maski - ST), and Narayani ( Lingasugur - SC).

Asked about the fate of alliance in the light of the party releasing its list, sources in the State JD(U) said that the BJP central leadership had asked general secretary H.N. Ananth Kumar to look into the matter. The party was awaiting Mr. Ananth Kumar’s response.

BJP adamant

The State unit of the BJP is learnt to have decided to stick to its offer of 10 seats. A senior BJP functionary said, “These 10 seats are the maximum that we can offer.”

He said the BJP State unit was even contemplating going it alone in the polls if the JD(U) stuck to its demand for 25 seats. “We will take a final decision tomorrow (Saturday) in Bangalore when we hold consultations with the JD(U) leaders,” he said.

The BJP leader said it would be difficult for the party to balance the social equations of giving representation to different communities and linguistic groups if it gave away more than 10 seats to the JD(U). “Already there is so much demand for party ticket. It will be difficult to manage if we give more than 10 seats,” he said.

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