With the national leadership of the Janata Dal (Secular) [JD-S] advancing a proposal for an electoral alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Karnataka for the upcoming 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the Kerala unit of the party is once again at a crossroads regarding its political future.
This scenario mirrors a precedent when the State unit distanced itself from JD(S) national leadership during its pact with the BJP in Karnataka in 2006, striving to assert its autonomy within the Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI-M]-led Left Democratic Front (LDF), of which it is a coalition partner.
“We cannot support the national leadership’s decision to ally with the BJP. Our party is an integral part of the LDF coalition. A meeting has been convened in Thiruvananthapuram this Thursday to determine our course of action,” K. Lohia, JD(S) State secretary, said.
However, the path ahead is fraught with complexities, as the State unit grapples with internal divisions. This contrasts with its past unity under the late M.P. Veerendrakumar’s leadership.
Sources said that at the centre of this dilemma was K. Krishnankutty, a senior leader currently holding a Cabinet position. Speculations were also rife about his potential alignment with the Loktantrik Janata Dal (LJD), which already had plans to merge with the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) next month, they said.
Simultaneously, JD(S)‘s State president Mathew T. Thomas, an incumbent MLA, faces challenges in his aspiration for his induction into the Cabinet which was coinciding with Mr. Krishnankutty’s two-and-a-half-year tenure as a Minister.
The sources said if Mr. Krishnankutty joined the LJD, originally a splinter faction of JD(S), now led by Mr. Veerendrakumar’s son M.V. Shreyams Kumar, he could retain his Cabinet position, given the LJD’s lone legislator.
Previously the LJD and the JD(S) had been holding talks for the merger of the two parties for almost five years. However, the plans derailed when the national leadership of JD(S) supported the BJP‘s candidates, Droupadi Murmu for President and Jagdeep Dhankhar for Vice-President elections. Subsequently, the LJD also indicated a delay in the unity plans until the Karnataka Assembly polls.
Meanwhile, the decision of another influential leader, JD(S) national vice president A. Neelalohithadasan Nadar, who shares a strong rapport with Mr. Dev Gowda, looms large as a determinant for the State unit’s future.
