The Janata Dal (Secular), which has almost lost its base in north Karnataka, plans to strengthen its roots keeping in mind the 2018 Assembly elections.
Addressing presspersons here on Saturday, the former Chief Minister and JD(S) State president H.D. Kumaraswamy said that the party will focus on capturing more seats from Hyderabad Karnataka and Bombay Karnataka region during the next Assembly polls.
Mr. Kumaraswamy said that a team of senior JD(S) leaders, under the leadership of party supremo H.D. Deve Gowda, will travel north Karnataka districts to motivate workers. “I will be personally holding meeting at panchayat levels to strengthen the roots,” he said.
Taking a dig at the Siddaramaiah-led Congress government in the State, he said that while the government was soft towards State government employees, its approach towards the police personnel was very harsh.
Although 5.40 lakh government employees staged a token strike on June 2, the government was mum but when the police wanted to highlight their plight, they were warned of dismissal from service and eviction from police quarters, he said.
“Instead of cracking the whip on the IPS officials for harassing the lower rung officials, the state government is treating the police personnel as its slaves,” he said, adding that police quarters in several districts were unfit to stay even for the cattle.
To a query, he said that anti-party activities would be dealt with seriously and even if the dissidents happened to be influential leaders they would not be spared.
“On issues of tackling the dissident activities and preparing the route map for 2018 Assembly elections, the party will hold Legislative Party meeting in Bengaluru on June 12,” he said.
Mr. Kumaraswamy said that unlike other parties JD(S) leaders had more freedom, but few were misusing the privileges, which would be dealt with seriously.
Compromise
The former Chief Minister said that the Congress and the BJP had indulged in compromise politics. “Congress leader and Energy Minister D.K. Shivakumar held a meeting with BJP State President B.S.Yeddyurappa on the Rajya Sabha and Council polls and have subsequently come to conclusion on helping each other,” he said.
