HD Deve Gowda stated that on July 15, that the JD(S) will not have a pre-poll alliance with the Congress for any elections except for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls next year. In the conference, he targeted Congress leaders for ‘levelling regional bias’ charge against his son and chief minister HD Kumaraswamy over the budget. It was clearly stated that they would be running for the elections as separate parties in any other poll.
“But in the other elections, like local body polls, we will fight separate battles,” he told, addressing the party workers in Belagavi.
With Kumaraswamy breaking down in a public address the rocky relationship between the two parties are being undertaken under much media scrutiny however, Deve Gowda cleared everything in the conference addressing that the alliance will only exist till the next 2019 polls.
JD(S) faces more crises within its own party. The conflict which Gowda was reacting to was Mr. Deve Gowda was a conflict between supporters of party president Shankar Madalagi and Santosh Upadhyaya, city youth wing president. Targeting the media for initiating caste based conflict in the Congress-JD(S) state government he stated,
“Some media houses are attributing this to the CM’s caste. Some are saying he is neglecting the region is he is a Vokkaliga. This is not true. Lingayats have ruled the State for 23 years and Vokkaliga leaders, like me and Mr. Kumaraswamy, have ruled it for less than three years. Let us have a discussion about who has contributed to the region in what way. It should be done in the next Assembly session so that there will be no further discussion on the topic in future,”
Referring to the reaction of Kumaraswamy on the strained relationship of JD(S) and Congress in the state of Karnataka he pacified by stating that
“Some opposition leaders seem to want Mr. Kumaraswamy’s resignation. But he will not resign,”