Hard on the heels of its decision to join hands with the Bharatiya Janata Party, the Janata Dal (S) is now teetering on the edge of a vertical split with the party’s Kerala unit giving a formal rebuke to the national leadership.
A delegation led by JD(S) State president Mathew T. Thomas, MLA, and Minister K. Krishnankutty on Sunday conveyed the State unit’s decision not to align with the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) directly to party supremo H.D. Deve Gowda. The abrupt declaration of support to the NDA by the JD(S) national leadership had caught its Kerala unit, a constituent of the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government, in a bind.
Meeting on Oct. 7
“To chart out the future course of action, a meeting of the JD(S) executive committee will be convened in Kochi on October 7,” Mr. Thomas said over phone from Bengaluru. The decision to stay away from the NDA, according to him, is consistent with the decisions made by the party plenum as well as its national executive committee to work alongside parties other than the BJP and the Congress.
The latest development comes at the instance of the CPI(M), which insisted that the JD(S) leadership to clarify its stance on the BJP alliance. The United Democratic Front (UDF) too had criticised the ‘ambiguous position’ of the JD(S) State unit after its party’s NDA entry.
A socialist union
The development, meanwhile, has also raised the spectre of yet another realignment of forces within the broad platform of socialist parties after the proposed merger of the Loktantrik Janata Dal (LJD) and the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) later next week. The LJD had earlier gone back on its decision to merge with the JD(S) in view of H.D. Kumaraswami, son of Mr. Gowda, continuously making overtures towards the BJP with an intention to form the government in Karnataka.
Bargaining strength
The socialist movement in Kerala, meanwhile, is counting on the JD(S) State unit to merge with the RJD after breaking up with the national unit and to add to its collective bargaining strength. “Although the proposed merger between LJD and JD(S) did not take place, there is every likelihood of the prospective breakaway faction now joining the broader socialist platform. It will help the socialist movement to evolve as a formidable, third force in Kerala,” observed Varghese George, LJD national general secretary.
