Bihar results an endorsement of regional parties against national ones: H D Kumaraswamy

BENGALURU: H D Kumaraswamy, the Karnataka state president of the Janata Dal (S) and son of former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda, sees an endorsement of regional parties against national parties in the Bihar election results.

He said: "This shows that people endorse regional parties, if they rule well. It is a trend that will continue in both Tamil Nadu and West Bengal elections next year. It can happen at the national level also."

Kumaraswamy, a former Karnataka chief minister, as been in and out of national politics since 1996, when his father became PM. His aides and family members have expressed hope, in private, that he would succeed his father to the national post also. The family, which strongly believes in astrological predictions, is reported to have conducted rituals to facilitate this.

Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah, the Congress's last big regional satrap, brushed off the debate and the contention that Nitish Kumar would pose the national challenge to PM Narendra Modi, rather than the Congress' Rahul Gandhi. "Each election is different. Let us see the situation in the next Lok Sabha election. But Bihar has shown that people vote for social justice and secularism. The Modi wave is over," he said.