By Sushil Kutty
Janata Dal (S) must have compulsions for wanting an alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party for the 2024 general elections. For the record, the BJP, too, will not look askance at a tie-up with the Janata Dal (S). At this point in time, and right up to general elections 2024, neither party is in any manner of speaking better placed than the other. The results of the Karnataka assembly elections saw to it that both had an upper hand!
Such are the vagaries of failing to win elections. The loser does not have the luxury to dictate/choose. And both the formidable Bharatiya Janata Party and the once formidable Janata Dal (S) have had their teeth pulled out with the third-placed Janata Dal (S) losing molar as well as canine.
The first-placed Congress is, however, one of the compulsions for HD Kumara swamy’s Janata Dal (S) to hanker for an alliance with the “communal” BJP. You see, the Congress is why Karnataka’s Muslim voters ditched Janata Dal (S) despite its “Secular” tag.
Worse, even the loyal Vokkaliga voted majorly for the Congress. And to think that the Gowdas are Vokkaliga. There couldn’t be a bigger betrayal?
Again, what’s the guarantee that the Muslims and the Vokkaliga don’t vote for the Congress in 2024, too? That leaves to the Janata Dal (S) only the BJP for a profitable alliance. Then again, maybe, the Muslims will vote strategically for the Lok Sabha polls. At least the Pasmanda among them — i.e., vote for the BJP for the parliamentary elections.
Like the Delhi electorate does! Arvind Kejriwal got the assembly but it’s always a strict “no-no…nada” for the parliamentary seats. The Modi government’s aggressive wooing of Muslim voters across geographies is the talk of many ghettoes teeming with the Pasmanda Muslim. Minority Affairs Minister SmritiIrani replied in Parliament that there were 20 crore Muslims in India and 50 percent of them have been given free housing under the Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana beside other minority-specific sops including free rations and LPG cylinders.
Remember, however, that there is no free lunch even if Prime Minister Narendra Modi was overheard telling party leaders to talk with Pasmanda Muslims even if “they do not vote BJP”. Regular television news channels may not be reporting it but there are hundreds of YouTube channels broadcasting the relentless unfolding of the Modi-Pasmanda phenomenon.
The Pasmanda Muslims want their slice of the developmental apple pie. Especially, the younger lot who are being wooed with jobs, scholarship deals and specialized coaching for cracking the Indian Civil Services examination. There is a several-fold increase in government jobs for marginalized Pasmanda Muslims.
The real story is, Prime Minister Narendra Modi cannot stop pandering to the Muslim. Is it conscience pricking? Whatever, the Janata Dal (S) has sensed it and wouldn’t mind riding piggyback. An alliance with the BJP for the Lok Sabha polls could be contrary to all expectations based on the recent assembly elections’ outcome. Just like AI, the Muslim vote-bank has become “self-aware”!
Also, the Congress will only eat into the JD (S) vote-bank, Muslim or Vokkaliga. Getting into an alliance with the Congress isn’t smart. There is an air of “I. Me. Myself.” type of arrogance in the Congress post the party’s handsome Karnataka election results. The JD(S) is aware beggars can’t be choosers — and it will be a lop-sided alliance loaded to favour the unreasonable Congress.
Simply put, the biggest compulsion for the Janata Dal (S) to seek an alliance with the BJP is its own weakened state. Whereas, the secular alternative Congress has grown, the Janata Dal (S) has not shown parallel expansion. On the contrary it has only shrunk. Aligned with the Congress, the JD (S) will be at a loss because both share a similar dna! An alliance with the BJP on the other hand will be a true partnership with mutually beneficial transfer of votes.
That said, a singular compulsion dogging the Janata Dal (S) to arrange an alliance with the BJP is the reality that Janata Dal (S) is a truly “one-state” party with little spread outside Karnataka. And, last but not least, Modi-Shah’s hold on the BJP has in recent times taken a beating. Manipur Chief Minister N. Biren Singh doesn’t listen to Modi or Shah and a section of Karnataka BJP leaders have told the BJP central leadership to stop talking of a BJP-JD(S) alliance. There is resistance. For the time being both parties will do the role of the combined opposition in the Karnataka assembly.(IPA Service)
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