Ending the week-long suspense, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Wednesday withdrew its candidates from both the Bangalore Rural and Mandya Lok Sabha constituencies, just before the closure of the deadline for withdrawal.
The BJP took this decision to support the informal anti-Congress Front led by the Janata Dal (Secular) which has a dominant presence in these constituencies. However, the party kept from formally accepting that there has been a pact between the two parties.
“This is a political strategy to ensure that the anti-Congress votes are not split. It is mainly to defeat the Congress and to build a tempo for the forthcoming general elections to the Lok Sabha,” party general secretary C.T. Ravi said.
Earlier, uncertainty had gripped the BJP as the party had been insisting on a formal tie-up with the JD(S) as against the latter’s suggestion for an informal understanding.
Ideological opposition
“But we finally decided to just withdraw our candidates from the fray as we know that the JD(S) cannot enter into any formal understanding with us due to the ideological opposition from its national president H.D. Deve Gowda. But the decision to withdraw candidates was taken only after discussing the issue with party Central leaders after JD(S) State president H.D. Kumaraswamy explained his position in media statements,” BJP sources said.
Though the BJP has withdrawn its candidates from both the constituencies, it may be of help to the JD(S) only in Bangalore Rural, which is set to witness a high-profile battle between Mr. Kumaraswamy’s wife Anita Kumaraswamy and his political opponent and former Minister D.K. Shivakumar’s brother D.K. Suresh.
Though BJP is a marginal force in these two Lok Sabha constituencies, the party still has a sizeable support base in the urban Assembly segments of the Bangalore Rural seat such as Bangalore South and Rajarajeshwarinagar, besides parts of Anekal. However, the BJP is still a non entity in Mandya.
