Karnataka elections: Congress steps up attack on JDS

Bengaluru: Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah on Sunday said this year’s assembly polls will be a contest between the ruling Congress’s secularism, Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP’s) communalism and Janata Dal (Secular)’s, or JDS’s, opportunism.

Though the Congress has consistently targeted the BJP in the run-up to the polls, the party has now also started attacking the JD(S), which has a significant presence in South Karnataka in terms of assembly seats.

Congress president Rahul Gandhi, Siddaramaiah and the entire top leadership of the national party toured the region on Saturday and Sunday.

Heading into assembly polls, due later this year, the Congress, which had so far refrained from targeting the JD(S), has switched gears and criticized the regional party for being the “B” team of the BJP. All three parties, with no pre-poll alliances, are trying to win an absolute majority.

Siddaramaiah, who parted ways with the JD(S) in 2006 after a bitter feud, has also sharpened his attacks against the party in recent times. Siddaramaiah said the JD(S) will not win even 25 of the 224 assembly seats in the state.

Gandhi also targeted the JD(S), saying it had no ideology. Gandhi had said that the “S” in JD(S) stands for “Sangh Parivar”.

Gandhi’s speech comes a day before BJP president Amit Shah’s visit to various influential Lingayat seminaries and meeting with various sections of society.

On Sunday, Gandhi completed visits to all four divisions of the state—Mumbai-Karnataka, Hyderabad-Karnataka, coastal and south Karnataka.

During his visit to south Karnataka, Gandhi interacted with students, party workers and other sections of the society to mobilise support for the elections.

For the Congress, retaining power in Karnataka has become the biggest target as it is one of the last big states still under its rule and remains the biggest hurdle to the BJP’s mission of ‘Congress Mukt Bharat’. The polls in Karnataka will be the last before the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.