'I am not bothered,' says Siddaramaiah on BJP & JD(S) poll pact for LS polls
Bengaluru (PTI): Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Friday said he is not bothered about the poll pact between the BJP and JD(S) for the Lok Sabha elections saying the people will back the Congress party.
His remark's come after senior BJP leader and former Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa today stated that the saffron party will have an understanding with former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda-led JD(S) for 2024 Lok Sabha polls, an announcement that shot up political temperature in the State.
Addressing mediapersons Siddaramaiah said, "Whether there will be an alliance or whether they will fight separately, I am not bothered".
"We will appeal to the people to vote. People are with us. They will vote for us," the chief minister said when his reaction was sought.
Earlier, Yediyurappa, who is also the BJP parliamentary board member told reporters that as part of the poll understanding, the JD(S) will contest in four Lok Sabha seats in Karnataka, which has a total of 28 constituencies.
"BJP and JD(S) will have an understanding. Amit Shah (Union Home Minister) has agreed to give four Lok Sabha seats (to JD(S))," the four-time chief minister said.
The BJP swept the 2019 Lok Sabha polls in Karnataka by winning 25 seats, while an independent backed by it won in one seat. The Congress and JD(S) won one seat each.
JD(S) had contested the 2019 Lok Sabha polls in alliance with Congress, as both parties were then running a coalition government under the Chiefministership of Gowda's son H D Kumaraswamy.
Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar, termed the development as not new.
"Let them do it (have an understanding)....earlier too they had done it when Ashokanna (BJP leader R Ashoka) and Kumaranna (Kumaraswamy) had come together in the previous (BJP-JDS coalition) government. Nothing wrong let them do anything for their survival. But my question is how their (JDS) ideology works? Deve Gowda at earlier situations had ruled out alliance with BJP," he said.
Raising questions on JD(S)' survival in the future, Shivakumar, who is also the state Congress chief said, "It is left for them. They would have built a party based on an ideology... I don't know what will happen to their party, their legislators, former legislators. It is left for them." PTI KSU RS KSU
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Congress using hijab issue to pacify minority anger, alleges Karnataka LoP R Ashoka
Bengaluru: Leader of Opposition in the Assembly R. Ashoka has accused the Congress government of using the hijab issue to placate what he described as discontent among minority voters after the Davanagere by-election.
In a post on X on Wednesday, Ashoka alleged that the state government, instead of addressing issues such as price rise, corruption, farmers’ distress and law and order, was attempting to retain its minority vote base by reviving the hijab issue.
Referring to the 2022 dress code introduced by the BJP government, which prohibited hijab in schools and colleges, Ashoka said the Karnataka High Court had upheld the policy and emphasised the importance of discipline in educational institutions.
He questioned the Congress government’s move to revisit the issue and asked whether setting aside the court-backed policy to benefit one community could be described as secularism.
Ashoka further alleged that while the government was willing to permit hijab, it continued to prohibit saffron shawls.
He accused the government of dividing students on religious lines rather than treating schools and colleges as spaces of equality.
Drawing a comparison with Mamata Banerjee’s government in West Bengal, Ashoka claimed that excessive appeasement politics had harmed the state and warned that the Congress in Karnataka could face a similar political response.
He said voters in Karnataka would teach the Congress a lesson for what he termed “vote-bank politics” and for compromising constitutional and judicial principles.
