JDS is BJP's B Team: Expect more strikes from Rahul Gandhi

BENGALURU: In an attempt to avoid split in Muslim vote in the Old Mysuru region, Congress president Rahul Gandhi dubbed the party’s main rival in the belt, the Janata Dal (Secular) as Janata Dal (Sangh Parivar).

Gandhi is on a two-day visit to the region, which comprises 62 seats, where the BJP has very limited presence. Even as he consolidates the minority votes, Gandhi prayed at the Chamundeshwari temple in Mysuru, the home district of chief minister Siddaramaiah and then visited Chamarajanagar and Mandya, addressing public meetings and interacting with students at the Maharani’s college.

The ‘Sangh Parivar’ jibe came about as an estimated three percent of the JDS voteshare of 20% comprises the Muslims. The Congress has already struck by inducting two JDS MLAs—Zameer Ahmed Khan and Iqbal Ansari.


“We need to ensure that the message goes across to all Muslims that the JDS is just cutting into the vote and is not in a position to stop the BJP from forming government,” a Congress office-bearer told ET. “That is why our party president is emphasising that JDS is the ‘B’ team of the BJP in all the interactions in the Old Mysuru area.”

The move could, however, backfire as JDS chief HD Deve Gowda and his son Kumaraswamy, have a strong following among the dominant Vokkaliga community who resent any derisive comment about their leaders. “We had not commented about Rahul Gandhi so far, but he is the most immature politician,” JDS spokesperson and MLC Ramesh Babu told ET.

“His advisors (social media head and former Mandya MP) Ramya and chief minister Siddaramaiah have told him to call us the ‘B’ team. The Congress is already routed in Old Mysuru region and election results will show that,” he said. “The BJP and the Congress are two sides of the same coin, so who is whose B team?” he asked.

Siddaramaiah has been battling the image of “anti-Vokkaliga” from the time he had a falling out with his former mentor Deve Gowda, 10 years ago. “Not a single post of importance has been given to any Vokkaliga during his rule,” Gowda himself has said on several occasions.

Vokkaliga ministers in the Siddaramaiah cabinet admit that little has been done to change that perception, though the party’s campaign committee head in Karnataka is a prominent member of the same community, D K Shivakumar. “There was Vokkaliga disenchantment with the Gowda family, but we have not done enough to capitalise on that,” a minister admitted.

Siddaramaiah’s aides though say that he is the first CM to recommend promotion of 11 Vokkaligas from Karnataka administrative service to the IAS, seven Karnataka state police service officers to IPS. “Several Vokkaliga officers are holding prominent positions. It is just that in a Congress administration, all castes and religions are balanced. In JDS, only Vokkaligas are visible,” the aide contended.

Five JDS MLAs, other than the two Muslim MLAs, joined the Congress

in Mysuru. These include three Vokkaligas.