BRS extends support to JDS for Karnataka assembly elections

Terming the JDS a “natural ally”, the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) has decided to throw its weight behind former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda’s party in the coming assembly elections in Karnataka.

The BRS move doesn’t augur well for the Congress, particularly at a time when it has made a fresh bid to unite the Opposition parties in the aftermath of Rahul Gandhi’s disqualification from the Lok Sabha. Moreover, the JDS-BRS combine may further divide the non-BJP votes, making it difficult for the Congress to wrest power from the BJP in Karnataka.

Telangana’s ruling party led by Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao was earlier weighing its option of fielding its candidates in some districts bordering Telangana in Kalyana-Karnataka (earlier known as Hyderabad-Karnataka) as part of its strategy to expand nationally but that plan is no longer on the table now.

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“JDS is our natural ally and we will go with the party. We want to ensure that the JDS is successful in the elections,” a senior leader of BRS told news agency PTI. Sources said KCR would campaign for JDS candidates, particularly in segments where “Telugu-speaking people are densely populated”, as a BRS leader put it. Assembly elections are due in Karnataka by May.

Meanwhile, JDS leader and former Karnataka chief minister HD Kumaraswamy is busy garnering support for his party. He met West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in Kolkata last week and requested the TMC chief to campaign in the Karnataka assembly polls.

“Mamata Banerjee has agreed to Kumaraswamy’s request to campaign in Karnataka. She has asked him to send her a schedule,” a JDS leader had said after the meeting in the West Bengal capital.

(With Agency inputs)