BENGALURU: Former Karnataka chief minister H D Kumaraswamy on Thursday said the Janata Dal (Secular) and the Bharat Rashtriya Samiti (BRS) are not going into any pre-poll alliance as the latter is not keen on entering Karnataka assembly elections of 2023.
Speaking to the media in Bengaluru, a day after having held a high profile meeting with the Telangana Rashtriya Samiti (TRS), now rechristened as BRS, and its founder CM K Chandrashekar Rao, Kumaraswamy said: “The TRS is not interested in contesting the Karnataka 2023 elections. While they will be helping the JD(S) in the Telugu speaking regions along Hyderabad-Karnataka and in Kolar, Chikkaballapura, it is not keen on fielding its own MLA aspirants.”
Kumaraswamy, however, hinted that the BRS may consider fielding aspirants for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections for which they have sought JD(S) assistance.
“As for the 2024 parliamentary polls, Rao and the new BRS is keen on contesting in 150 seats outside Telangana for which they have sought JD(S) support. But this plan of Rao is dependent upon the then prevailing political scenario in the country,” added the two time former CM.
Kumaraswamy, in fact added that the BRS and JD(S) have decided to become allies on an ideological level with the former planning to include the more populist schemes of the Telangana government in the regional party’s 2023 election manifesto.
“As part of the JD(S) Pancharathna promise to the people of Karnataka if it comes to power, we have decided to include the Telangana schemes of Raitha Bandu and Dalita Bandu in our manifesto,” he said.
The JD(S) leader said Rao in fact asked the party MLAs who had accompanied him to Hyderabad for bringing 500 farmer producer organisation (FPO) representatives and Dalit voters from each of their districts to Telangana, at the cost of BRS and Telangana government, to see how the populist schemes like providing free power, 24x7, and seed funding for Dalit community is working in the neighbouring state.
Kumaraswamy said the JD(S) is hoping to secure the assistance of the TRS in at least 20 to 25 seats along the Telangana and Andhra Pradesh border regions of Karnataka.
“There has been a lot of influx of Telugu speaking communities into Karnataka. The support of BRS is something of a god send gift to JD(S) which is fighting a lone battle against two national parties in Karnataka. With their assistance we hope to secure at least 15-20 seats in the Kalyana Karnataka region and an overall 45-50 seats in north Karnataka,” said Kumaraswamy.
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