The Kerala unit of the Janata Dal (S) [JD(S)] on October 7 rejected the decision of its party supremo H. D. Deve Gowda to join hands with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and decided to continue its alliance with the ruling Left front in Kerala.
A meeting of the Kerala unit’s executive committee held in Kochi unanimously approved a resolution against the national leadership’s decision to forge an alliance with the BJP ahead of the Parliament elections in 2024.
“The Kerala unit of the Janata Dal (S) will continue its four-and-a-half decades of alliance with the Left front as it is committed to the ideals of secularism, socialism and democracy. There was no discussion or decision taken at the party’s organisational level to join hands with the BJP. We were not convinced by the reasons pointed out by Mr. Deve Gowda in his decision to partner with the BJP,” according to Mathew T. Thomas, MLA and Kerala president of the JD(S).
The meeting entrusted senior leaders, who are part of the national executive of the party, to hold discussions with the leadership of other State units to discuss a common way forward in the wake of the decision by Mr. Gowda and his son H. D. Kumaraswamy to forge an alliance with the BJP.
Mr. Thomas rejected the criticism by the Opposition in Kerala that the Left front has not severed its ties with the JD(S) to woo the BJP votes into its fold. He recalled that the State unit stood with the Left front when the national leadership deviated from its secular and democratic credentials in 2006. He said that there is no decision as of now to merge with any party.
The executive committee will meet again on October 11 to chalk out the next strategy.
