Once in a coalition government with the Congress, JD(S) supremo and former prime minister HD Deve Gowda on Saturday opened up on his “bitter experience” with the grand old party after its dismal performance in the recent assembly elections in five states.
“Our experience with Congress was bitter. Not bothered about it anymore, nor having a pre-poll or post-poll alliance with it in Karnataka,” Gowda told News18, adding that all regional parties should come together.
The former PM further said that JDS tried to approach Congress twice for an alliance but failed. “If the Congress is not interested, let them contest all the 545 seats on their own,” he said. Who’s upset?” she asked.
Gowda also advised Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee not to go to the Congress door. “He himself is a strong leader. Why go to Sonia Gandhi’s party if she is not interested,” he said and added that he now wants to focus on party building in Karnataka.
JDS and Congress delivered a decisive verdict after the 2018 Karnataka Assembly elections. While the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) emerged as the single largest party with 104 seats, it fell short of a simple majority of nine seats in the 224-member Assembly (one additional member nominated).
The Congress (later won two more in the bypolls) with 78 seats and the JD(S) with 37 seats decided to form an alliance to keep the BJP out of power. At the time, the Congress had its own national compulsions – general elections were just a year away – and the JD(S), which had been out of power for 10 years, more than desired.
However, the alliance fell apart in 15 months after Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy lost the trust vote following the resignations of MPs from the ruling Congress and Janata Dal Secular.
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