Existence battle for former PM HD Deve Gowda’s party JDS, will he become kingmaker again?

Karnataka Assembly Elections 2023: All eyes are also on whether it will be a battle of political survival for the Janata Dal (Secular) led by former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda or will the regional party once again become the ‘King’ or ‘King’ of the Karnataka assembly elections to be held on May 10. Will emerge as ‘Kingmaker’ as happened in 2018 in the event of a hung mandate.

Like the last few elections, this time too it is being talked about in political circles. Plagued by defections and internal strife, and with an image of being a ‘family party’, Deve Gowda’s son HD Kumaraswamy virtually single-handedly managed the JD(S) campaign across the state, including his aging father stay back

JD(S) focuses on ‘Pancharatna’ program

Kumaraswamy focused his campaign on a program called ‘Pancharatna’ which covered the issues of quality education, health care, housing, farmers’ welfare and employment and said these would be implemented if the JD(S) came to power.

Though 89-year-old Deve Gowda initially stayed away from campaigning due to age-related ailments, he campaigned for JD(S) candidates in the past few weeks, especially in the old Mysore region, considered the party’s stronghold. He countered the attacks of Congress and BJP against his party.

Twice in power, no government on its own

Both the Congress and the JD(S) have been called each other’s ‘B team’ by the BJP. Since its formation in 1999, the JD(S) has never formed a government on its own, but has been in power twice in alliance with both the national parties. From February 2006, it was in government for 20 months with the BJP and after the May 2018 assembly elections, it was in government for 14 months with the Congress, whose chief minister was Kumaraswamy.

This time, the party has set an ambitious target of ‘Mission 123’ to form the government on its own by winning at least 123 seats out of the total 224 seats. However, many political observers and even a section within the party are skeptical about achieving this goal. JD(S)’s best performance was in the 2004 assembly elections when it won 58 seats. After this, in 2013, it had won 40 seats. In 2018, it got 37 seats in its account.

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