JDS ignores Ibrahim’s comments, suspects Cong trying to stoke trouble

The JDS on Tuesday sought to ignore its state unit president CM Ibrahim's comments, who has sought to distance himself from the party's decision to align with the BJP for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.

The two parties have decided to fight the election together and will soon enter a seat sharing deal.

The ruling Congress, however, joked that the electoral pact was only between JDS leader HD Kumaraswamy and BJP leader Amit Shah, and not between the two parties by pointing to Ibrahim's remarks.


Ibrahim, a former Union Minister when HD Deve Gowda was the PM in the 1990s, said on Monday that he headed the state unit of the original JDS which would not align with the BJP. He would request both Gowda and Kumaraswamy to return to JDS and not have any truck with the BJP. Sections of JDS MLAs would stay back with him if Gowda and Kumaraswamy still went ahead with their decision, he said.

The Congress took potshots at Kumaraswamy asking whether he was part of a fake JDS and threw mud into the eyes of the BJP leaders by claiming to represent the original JDS while discussing the electoral pact. The party went ahead to say the former CM had no power to take any decision on his party's behalf as he was not even an office bearer of the JDS.

Kumaraswamy, who visited Chamundi hills in Mysuru on Tuesday, made light of Ibrahim's comments, saying he was free to do whatever he liked.

Sources in the JDS said Ibrahim was very much part of discussions to align with the BJP but had later changed colours at the behest of some outsider influence. The JDS leaders, sources said, believe Deputy CM DK Shivakumar was behind Ibrahim’s latest utterances and trying to stoke trouble in the regional party.

Shivakumar and Kumaraswamy, both tall Vokkaliga leaders and representing the same Ramanagar district in the Assembly, have been lashing out at each other almost on a daily basis using strong words.