The Once Poweful Janata Dal(S) Is Now A Lonely Traveller In Indian Politics

By Sushil Kutty

There are 64 squares on the chessboard and 26 INDIA parties will square up against 38 NDA parties in the 2024 general elections. But how many realized that 38+26 added up to ‘64’? Everybody was talking of how Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s NDA paled in front of the singularly “inclusive” INDIA and most everybody ended the evening having set up the NDA for the kill. The ‘INDIA’ partnership with 26 political parties shoulder to shoulder was declared the clear winner. But while Delhi and Bengaluru saw partnerships form and gel, there was also the undeclared grouping of those political parties which did not figure in either ‘INDIA’ or NDA.

Topping the list is ex-Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda’s Janata Dal (Secular), the one which is currently headed by Deve Gowda’s son and former Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy. The loneliness of Janata Dal is so starkly clear that nobody is talking of it; everybody is too clued on INDIA and NDA to bother with those consigned to the ‘also ran”.

The loneliness of Janata Dal (S) stands out starkly even among parties left out or ignored by INDIA and NDA. Parties such as Biju Janata Dal, K Chandrashekar Rao’s Bharat RashtraSamithi and Jagan Mohan Reddy’s YSRCP, all three of which are winners on their day. The Janata Dal (S) harbours no such pretensions. To even the opposition front INDIA, JD (S) is a spent force. The recent Karnataka assembly elections saw the rout of JD(S) and there weren’t any mourners. The Vokkaliggaa, the community to which the Gowdass belong, ditched the Janata Dal (S), just like the Muslims who used to favour JD(S) till recently.

The political loneliness of Janata Dal (S) is so complete that only the ward ‘Isolation’ fits it. Having ‘Janata’in the title accentuates the paradox. It does make one think, how long before Janata Dal (S) is reduced to a secular version of AsaduddinOwaisi’s All-India Majlis-e-IttehadulMuslimeen?

It is all the more tragic because the state in which it survives is unlike Odisha or Telangana, both of which have found and  have stuck to their own state’s party. In one case Biju Janata Dal and in the other with Bharat RashtraSamithi which used to be Telangana RashtraSamithi. Karnataka voters think “national” and Janata Dal (S) isn’t their overwhelming choice despite its “secular” tag.

So much so, there’s confusion in many people’s minds about whether Janata Dal (S) is a national party or a regional party. The Election Commission places Janata Dal (S) among the non-national parties. The only thing “national” about Janata Dal (S) was when HD Deve Gowda was chosen Prime Minister of India.

Yet, today, an ex-Prime Minister of India’s party is ignored by an alliance of national and regional political parties going by the election-winning name of ‘INDIA’. If that isn’t travesty, what is? And to imagine that Janata Dal (S) has throughout its existence envisaged itself as “Kingmaker”, mostly in the context of Karnataka but also on the national stage.

Even in the recent Karnataka assembly elections, Janata Dal (S) saw itself as a ‘Kingmaker’, cocksure that it will be comfortably placed to be even King! That did not happen and HD Kumaraswamy and HD Deve Gowda sought to build bridges with the Bharatiya Janata Party. But Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s outfit saw fit not to align with JD(S).

There is no telling what the future holds and there is still time for the 2024 general elections. For the moment, the BJP is still reeling from the INDIA shock and what happens to Janata Dal (S) is farthest from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s mind. But to think that Chirag Paswan’s localized party mattered to BJP and not JD(S)! Ditto INDIA, which chose several other less consequential opposition parties over the Janata Dal (S).

It is galling and it is also an insult. JD(S) has always been a party of alliance, either with the Congress or with the BJP. And now is in neither camp. One would have thought, the secular Congress wouldn’t have dumped a secular chum and the communal BJP would have jumped to get a secular ally. The feeling one gets is that with the Muslim electorate deciding to vote Congress and the Vokkaligga also shifting alliance, Janata Dal (S) has lost its once lonely splendor and there is no chance it will get out of isolation before 2024.(IPA Service)

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