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Janata Dal (Secular)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Janata Dal (Secular) is a left of centre Indian political party[1] led by former Prime Minister of India H.D. Deve Gowda.[2] It was formed in July 1999 by the split of Janata Dal party.[3][4]. It has political presence mainly in Karnataka and Kerala, where it is part of the LDF government.
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The JD(S) traces its roots back to the Janata Party organized by Jayprakash Narayan that united all anti-Indira Gandhi parties under one banner for the 1977 national elections.
The Janata Party split twice, first in 1979 and then in 1980 leading to the birth of the Bharatiya Janata Party which comprised members of the erstwhile Jan Sangh which was close to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.[5][6]
Janata Dal was formed in Bangalore by the merger of the Janata Party with smaller opposition parties in 1988[7][8][9].
In May 1996, H.D. Deve Gowda, now leader of Janata Dal (Secular), became Prime Minister of India as part of a coailition (called United Front) government.[10]
Janata Dal split in 1999 when some leaders left to ally with the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance and form the Janata Dal (United) party.[2] That party was led by George Fernandes while Deve Gowda emerged as the leader of the Janata Dal (Secular).
Even though the premise for the split was its opposition to allying with the National Democratic Alliance, Deve Gowda stayed equally away from the Congress from the outset. [11] Gowda wanted the party to remain equi-distant from both the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress. In spite of its difference with the Janata Dal(United) on the issue of support to National Democratic Alliance, the two parties were united in their anti-Congress stance. [12] Gowda wanted the parties to merge in future but the Janata Dal(United) was not keen to ally with Gowda.
H.D. Deve Gowda is still the leader of the party and is a member of Lok Sabha for the Hassan district in Karnataka. His party is the third-largest in the Karnataka state legislature and for a time governed in a coalition with the Indian National Congress party (INC), the first coalition government in Karnataka. There was much controversy over the JD(S) allying with the INC in Bangalore as the INC formerly had an outright majority and was diminished to second place with the BJP having a plurality. The BJP saw the rise in seats for both BJP and JD(S) as being a sign that the voters did not want an INC state government and were very upset when the kingmaker JD(S) party decided to ally with the INC to gain a majority. However, the JD(S) considered INC to be the lesser of the two evils on account of its erstwhile secular and centre-left credentials.
Janata Dal has been split once again between its two leaders as JDS(Siddaramaiah) group and DeveGowda group. Recently the Deve Gowda group has joined hands with BJP, and together now govern Karnataka, in the eyes of some betraying the JD(S)'s commitment towards secular ideology. Siddaramaiah and his supporters such as former union minister C.M Ibrahim have joined the Congress party. Siddaramaiah contested the Chamundeswari assembly by-poll as a Congress candidate and trounced the joint candidate of Deve Gowda group and BJP.
The ideologically dedicated section of the JD(S) led by veteran Socialist leaders such as Surendra Mohan, M.P Veerendre Kumar, Mrinal Gore and PGR Schindhia has expelled Deve Gowda and his supporters for aligning with the 'communal' BJP and betraying the JD(S)'s commitment towards secular ideology.
Exasperated with the party leadership for having put them in a fix by denying power to the BJP, a major chunk of Dal MLAs led by veteran M P Prakash is said to be slowly but steadily drifting away from the H D Deve Gowda family. According to sources close to the developments, the rebel group is likely to identify itself as a separate legislature party and join hands with the Congress to form a new coalition government.
“He (Mr Kumaraswamy) disobeyed his father when he had a chance to become CM. Then nobody in the family thought that Mr Gowda would breathe his last. Now he is finding all sorts of excuses to not support the BJP... We want him to distance himself from his father. We have made this clear to him,” said a JD(S) MLA who did not like to be named.
Though Mr Kumaraswamy went by his father’s diktat to distance himself from BJP, he is not ready to align with the Congress, much to Mr Gowda’s chagrin.
Senior leader M P Prakash, who hails from dominant lingayat community, heading the rebel camp, announced the decision to quit JDS along with 12 former MLAs and their supporters.
Former legislators like B C Patil, Amaregowda Byyapura, M Y Patil and Suryanarayana Reddy have sizeable clout in parts of North Karnataka districts and H S Mahadeva Prasad holds key in old Mysore areas.
Former minister G T Devegowda, who hails from Mysore has joined BJP, dealing yet another blow to JDS.
