JD(S) to work for unification of Janata Parivar: Deve Gowda

S. Rajendran

"I am willing to shed my ego, if any, and even step down from the presidentship of the party... "

BANGALORE: The former Prime Minister and national president of the Janata Dal (Secular), H.D. Deve Gowda, has said that the coming elections in four States, including Uttar Pradesh, is expected to result in a fresh political polarisation and towards this end he would do his best for the unification of the Janata Parivar.

Briefing presspersons after the national executive of the JD (Secular) held here on Sunday, Mr. Gowda said that apart from the poll outcome, the burning issues in the country would result in the unification of the Parivar. "I am willing to shed my ego, if any, and even step down from the presidentship of the party if we could work at bringing about a unity of the Janata Parivar. I am confident even the Left parties will associate with such a move." The others present included Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy, State President of the JD (S) and Home Minister M.P. Prakash and the Secretary General of the party, Kunwar Danish Ali.

The former Prime Minister said he was in touch with leaders of several secular parties (other than the Congress) including the leaders of the Samajwadi Party and others. In the meanwhile, the JD (S) was also working at expanding to the national level and was contesting the Assembly elections in Punjab, Uttaranchal and Manipur apart from the municipal elections in Maharashtra. The JD (S) is confident of making its debut in these States but he would not like to guess the number of seats that the party would win.

Interestingly, the national executive of the party held on Sunday and the national council and plenary session of the party, to be held on Monday, have been summoned to convey to the people that the JD (S) stood by its secular ideology and that the party rank and file in all States was intact irrespective of what has been termed "the actions of some rebel JD (S) leaders to split the party."

Of the 55 members of the JD (S) national executive, 39 from 17 States attended the meeting on Sunday. Ten of the national executive members have been suspended from the party on charges of anti-party activities while six of them were absent. This included the presidents of the Orissa and the Delhi units. It was stated that the president of the Delhi unit has, however, conveyed his loyalty to the party.

Asked whether the national executive and the national council meeting were summoned to enable the partymen to express their solidarity with his (Mr. Deve Gowda's) leadership, the former Prime Minister said the two important meetings had been called to enable the party representatives in the two bodies to affirm their trust and faith in the party constitution and its policies and ideologies.

For the past year, after Mr. Kumaraswamy entered into an understanding with the BJP to form a coalition Government in Karnataka, the JD (S) has been under attack from various quarters since the view was that the party had strayed away from its secular ideologies for the sake of power. "The national executive and the national council meetings are to affirm that the JD (S) will steadfast stick to its ideology and that it was equidistant to both the Congress and the BJP".

On the transfer of power to the BJP at the end of the 20 month term of the JD(S), Mr. Gowda said he did not see any hurdle provided the BJP stuck to the common minimum programme (Karnataka Development Programme). "The KDP is the Bible for the relationship between the two parties to have a smooth run. It is for the central BJP leaders to ensure that the KDP is adhered to".

Mr. Kumaraswamy, who completes one year in office on February 3, said the performance of the coalition Government so far was adequate indication of the good relationship the two parties enjoyed. Karnataka has now emerged as a model in coalition governance. Some minor problems had been amicably sorted out, he said.