Miffed at party’s NDA tie up, JD(S) in Kerala to launch new outfit

The JD(S), which won two seats in the Karnataka Lok Sabha polls after forming an alliance with the BJP and a ministerial berth in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s cabinet, faces the threat of losing its presence in neighbouring Kerala due to the same alliance.

The Kerala unit of Janata Dal (Secular), which had opposed the party leadership’s decision to form a one-party alliance with the BJP, has decided to relaunch itself as a new party with a new name, flag and electoral symbol.

The decision was announced by the party’s state leadership following a meeting held in Thiruvananthapuram on Tuesday (June 18). Party’s state chief Mathew T Thomas, however, said that a final call would only be taken after perusing the legal aspects of the proposal.

The JD(S) is allied with the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government at the Centre and the CPI(M)- led Left Democratic Front (LDF) government in Kerala.

Discontent over alliance with BJP

JD(S), founded by former prime minister HD Deve Gowda, has come under severe criticism from the Opposition in Kerala, for its decision to join the BJP-helmed NDA.

The Left government in Kerala has also been criticised for forming an alliance with a party that is tied to the saffron party at the Centre.

While several local leaders of JD(S) had urged Deve Gowda to reconsider the decision to join NDA, party patriarch and his son HD Kumaraswamy ignored the requests and finalised the alliance talks before the Lok Sabha polls.

Conflicting alliances

JD(S), which has now won two Lok Sabha seats in Karnataka and is a part of Narendra Modi's government at the Centre, has also bagged a cabinet-level ministerial berth in the Union Cabinet, with former chief minister Kumaraswamy taking over as Union Minister of Mines and Steel.

Meanwhile, the Kerala JD(S), which has two MLAs and a minister in the Left Front government, has continued its alliance with the ruling LDF.

Embarrassed with the party’s links with NDA at the Centre, leaders of the Kerala unit of JD(S) have now decided to sever ties with the party and form a separate political outfit.

JD(S) MLAs not to be part of new party

At Tuesday’s meeting, it was, however, decided that party MLA K Krishnan Kutty, who is currently the Energy Minister in the Kerala government, and former minister and sitting MLA (Mathew T) Thomas, also the party's state president, will not be officially identified in the new party in any way.

The decision was made in view of the fact that those who won on the JD(S) symbol will be disqualified if they change parties, and their MLA position will be threatened. The party leaders are reported to have said that all other JD(S) leaders and workers will join the new party.

(This article first appeared in The Federal Kannada)