Lagatar 24 Desk
Bengaluru, July 25: HD Deve Gowda, the leader of the Janata Dal (Secular), said on Tuesday that his party will not form a coalition with the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ahead of the Lok Sabha elections next year.
The former Prime Minister was speaking at a press conference here.
Deve Gowda asserted that the JD(S) would not form a coalition with another party during the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, saying, “JDS will never sink…We will fight for parliament elections independently and will not take any help from any party. Let me be very clear. There is no question of aligning with anybody, we will fight the battle independently on our own.”
Gowda’s son and former Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy declared last week that his party will cooperate with the BJP to oppose the Congress government on a number of issues, sparking rumours that the two parties may form an alliance for the elections of the next year.
Earlier on Monday, DK Shivakumar, the Deputy Chief Minister of Karnataka, said that the BJP and Janata Dal (Secular) officials were conspiring to “destabilise” the state’s Congress government.
Speaking to the local media, Shivakumar claimed that the BJP and Janata Dal (Secular) leaders had merely been to Singapore to devise a strategy to overthrow the Siddaramaiah government in Karnataka.
“BJP and JD(S) leaders are trying to enter into a pact. They could not have a meeting in Bengaluru or in New Delhi and have now booked tickets to Singapore. Our enemies have become friends. I have information on people who have flown out (to Singapore) only to hatch a plan to destabilise the Congress government in Karnataka,” Shivakumar said.
After holding a news conference with the former state Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Sunday, HD Kumaraswamy reportedly took a flight to Singapore for unspecified reasons.
In a joint press conference conducted on Friday in Bengaluru, former Chief Ministers Basavaraj Bommai and HD Kumaraswamy said they would cooperate to oppose the state’s Congress-led government on a number of issues.
At a hotel where the Opposition parties’ conference was conducted on July 18, both parties reached an agreement regarding the deployment of the IAS officers.
The BJP and JD (S) sent a memorandum to Karnataka Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot asking for an investigation into the placement of IAS officers on Thursday.
Governor Gehlot was presented with the memorandum by BJP leader Basavaraj Bommai and JD(S) leader HD Kumaraswamy, along with MLAs from their respective parties.
The BJP and the JD(S), two opposition parties, questioned the manner of governing in Karnataka on Wednesday and criticised Speaker of the Legislative Assembly UT Khader’s decision to suspend 10 BJP MLAs. They also charged the Congress government with repressing the Opposition for calling attention to the government’s errors.
The state government is being criticised by MLAs for allegedly breaking rules and sending IAS personnel to welcome party leaders at a recent conference of opposition parties in Bengaluru. The protests were taking place at the well of the House.
