Bengaluru: Voices of dissent against the JD(S)-Congress coalition government are gaining ground after the drubbing in the Lok Sabha polls and they are not confined to the Congress party.
Some JD(S) leaders too are talking openly about the mistake they committed by entering into a pre-poll alliance with the Congress that resulted in the defeat of several of their candidates including former Prime Minister and Janata Dal (Secular) supremo H.D. Deve Gowda (Tumakuru) and Mr Nikhil Kumaraswamy, son of Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy in Mandya.
At an introspection meeting in Gauribidanur, JD(S) MLA D.C. Gowrishankar blamed the coalition government for the poor performance of his party candidates and did not want CM Kumaraswamy to continue in the coalition with the Congress. He claimed Congress leaders and workers did not work for the JD(S) candidates in Tumakuru and Mandya which proved a blessing for the BJP candidates.
Mr Deve Gowda would have won by a margin of over two lakh votes had he contested as the JD(S) candidate and not as a coalition sponsored candidate, he said adding the same applied to Mr Nikhil too as all defeated Congress legislators teamed up and worked for his rival (Sumalatha Ambareesh).
It is high time the Janata Dal (Secular) severed its ties with the Congress in the interests of the party as well as lakhs of workers across the state. “I am ready to face any disciplinary action but I will persist with my demand that we should exit this government at the earliest,” he said.
Anand Asnotikar of the JD(S) who was defeated in Uttara Kannada parliamentary constituency, opined that he should have won by a big margin if Revenue Minister and District in-Charge Minister R.V. Deshpande had seriously campaigned for him.
According to him, the Janata Dal (Secular) had a good chance of winning the seat due to the anti-Ananth Kumar Hegde sentiment in the constituency.
Besides, the delay in naming him as the candidate was one of the major factors for his defeat.
“I would have won the seat if I was named the party candidate at least one month before the elections,” Asnotikar claimed.
