The Janata Dal (Secular) is grappling with its future as the party faces a critical juncture. After a poor performance in the assembly polls, the JD(S) formed an alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party for the Lok Sabha elections, a strategy that proved beneficial.
Transitioning from “safe mode” to ensure survival, HD Kumaraswamy is now in “save mode,” attempting to reboot the party’s image following the Prajwal Revanna sex scandal. The row has created an opportunity for Kumaraswamy to strengthen his control over the JD(S) amid the ongoing power tussle within the Gowda family.
In the 2023 assembly polls, JD(S) national president HD Deve Gowda had ruled out any alliance with the BJP, even as his son Kumaraswamy hinted at the possibility. This led to the JD(S) being reduced to 19 seats out of 224.
But the strategy that Kumaraswamy devised with Amit Shah to consolidate the Lingayat votes of the BJP and Vokkaliga votes of the JD(S) for a resounding win seems to have worked like a charm for the National Democratic Alliance in Karnataka.
“I am very happy with the results and our strategy worked well,” said an elated Kumaraswamy, who won his Mandya Lok Sabha seat with over 1.5 lakh votes. The NDA aimed to control the Old Mysore region, traditionally a JD(S) stronghold supported by the Vokkaliga community. Winning at least two out of three seats was crucial for the JD(S) to maintain its political foothold in the region.
Kumaraswamy has called the sex scandal a conspiracy to defame the Deve Gowda family and avoided making statements about the leaked videos to avoid appearing to defend the Revannas. He emphasised the family’s respect for women, citing his father’s untarnished legacy.
A senior JD(S) leader, who wished to remain anonymous, said, “Appa ji (Deve Gowda) has lived an upright life, never allowing a taint on the party’s image. It is a difficult time for the family and even more so for us party workers.”
Kumaraswamy and Revanna, the politician sons of HD Deve Gowda, have persistently vied for control within the JD(S), so much so that the families of both brothers have crossed swords when it came to giving tickets for assembly or parliamentary polls over the years.
The Revanna family, which has strong control over Hassan, now faces a significant challenge to its supremacy, with the sexual abuse scandal tarnishing the Gowda family’s reputation as well as the JD(S)’s image.
While the JD(S) may find some redemption in the seats won by Kumaraswamy in Mandya and the Kolar seat by Mallesh Babu, the Hassan and Mandya Lok Sabha constituencies have always been pivotal to the party’s election strategy.
The JD(S) is still at a critical crossroads. The party finds itself on the backfoot over sexual assault allegations against its leaders HD Revanna and Prajwal Revanna, the son and grandson of party patriarch Deve Gowda. The pen drive controversy pushed the JD(S) into a corner where it is alleged that lakhs of copies of the pen drives were distributed with videos of the victim women just before the Hassan Lok Sabha seat went to polls. Bhavani Revanna, Prajwal’s mother and a JD(S) leader, has also been accused of kidnapping one of the victims of sexual assault and keeping her captive to ensure she did not file an FIR.
With inputs from News18
