Cong-JD-S tieup augurs well for Opposition unity

New Delhi: Amid the gloom over a Congress rout in Karnataka, Opposition parties saw a glimmer of hope as the Janata Dal (Secular) and the Congress decided to come together to stop the BJP juggernaut from acquiring power in yet another state. The development augurs well for a similar alliance in 2019, Opposition sources said.

The JD(S) had fought the polls in alliance with the Bahujan Samaj Party, the Telugu Desam Party and the Asaduddin Owaisi-led AIMIM.

During the campaign, the JD(S)-BSP combine and the Congress had been at loggerheads and the Congress had even accused the JD(S) of being the BJP’s “B-Team”.

However, Congress backroom managers got into the act and prepared a multi-pronged plan to stem efforts of the BJP to form a government merely hours after the end of a high-pitched campaign in the state on Thursday.

Sources told this newspaper that the key to this alliance was BSP chief Mayawati who had called up JD(S) supremo and former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda and indicated that she would like him to go with the Congress.

According to the sources, as Ms Mayawati stepped in, the Congress reciprocated by deciding not to field any candidate in the Kairana and Noorpur bypolls in Uttar Pradesh where an SP-BSP-RLD coalition is taking on the BJP. It might be recalled that earlier in the politically significant bypolls in Gorakhpur and Phulpur, the Congress had fielded Brahmin candidates creating a triangular fight between SP-BSP and the BJP.

The first strategy or ‘Plan A’ as Congress sources termed it entailed propping up a dalit chief minister from Congress and a deputy chief minister from JD(S) in case the Siddarmaiah-led party fell just short of the majority mark. However, eventually they had to fall back on ‘Plan B’ which was giving outside support to the JD(S) with Mr H.D. Kumaraswamy as the chief minister.

As the Congress let pragmatism prevail, leaders from across regional parties as well as the Left sent in messages with their approvals.

West Bengal chief minister and Trinamul Congress chief Mamata Banerjee, earlier in the day tweeted: “Congratulations to the winners of the Karnataka elections. For those who lost, fight back. If Congress had gone into an alliance with the JD (S), the result would have been different. Very different.” However, as the Congress-JD (S) combine decided to come together, she hoped both will form the government.

Ms Mayawati also telephoned Mr Deve Gowda and said that he should take the Congress offer. CPI (M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury too backed the move.

Sources said that the Congress-JD (S) deal had been struck keeping in mind a larger alliance ahead of the 2019 general election where a larger role was being thought of for Ms Mayawati.

Ms Banerjee has already advocated a one-to-one fight in states.

Various other parties like the TDP, TRS and DMK have advocated the need for a Federal Front. The only bone of contention has been whether Congress should get a leadership role in the dispensation.

While the Congress has maintained that it is the only Opposition party with a national reach, regional parties have contended that it should be pragmatic and drop its ‘big brother’ attitude.