By IANS
Bangalore : The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) may take power in Karnataka to rule a south Indian state for the first time, but this is bound to cost it politically.
Political sources outside the BJP say that the party’s image will be dented with it deciding to go with the Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) after calling the latter names for not honouring an earlier power sharing arrangement.
This, the sources said, could dent the BJP’s prospects of capturing power in the sprawling state on its own in the future.
After virtually abusing one another, both JD-S and BJP stalwarts in the state are now justifying their bizarre coming together.
The BJP’s road shows against the former government of H.D. Kumaraswamy had been receiving huge response from people across the state when the BJP made a sudden volte-face.
“We will not go back to the betrayers”, BJP leaders had been saying, after accusing Kumaraswamy and his father and former prime minister H.D. Deve Gowda of letting down the BJP.
“Elections are the only way out,” BJP leader B.S. Yediyurappa and state BJP chief D.V. Sadananda Gowda had repeatedly stated in the last 10 days.
Now, both the BJP and Kumaraswamy justify their latest moves as an attempt to prevent the Congress from gaining power through backdoor manoeuvres.
The BJP, as the main gainer in the latest exercise, has to do a lot of explaining.
Some feel that the BJP somersault has given a new lease of life to the JD-S, in particular to the Gowda family, in Karnataka politics.
In the process, the Gowdas will escape the ignominy of going down in history as “untrustworthy” allies.
The BJP had seized the high moral ground when it pulled out of its alliance with the JD-S Oct 5 after Kumaraswamy refused to quit as chief minister to make way for BJP’s B.S. Yediyurappa.
The BJP decision reduced the Kumaraswamy ministry into a minority and he was forced to quit on Oct 9. The next day, the state came under President’s rule and the assembly was kept in suspended animation