Deve Gowda fights expulsion move

In a joint statement issued this evening, veteran Janata ideologue Surendra Mohan, JD(S) parliamentary party leader and Kerala unit president MP Veerendra Kumar and former Karnataka minister PGR Sindhia said although the national committee of the party on February 20 had decided to suspend the MLAs (including HD Kumaraswamy) who had joined hands with the BJP, no action had been taken.

Since Deve Gowda too had begun to openly support the coalition government and refused to convene a national committee “we were compelled to convene a National Committee of Janata Dal (S)” on August 5 and 6. At that meeting, it was resolved that Deve Gowda “has no legal and political right to continue as the president of the party.” The meeting also decided to hold a National Council of the party in December-end “somewhere in Kerala” to ratify the decision to expel Deve Gowda. Today’s statement reiterated that decision.

Deve Gowda is unperturbed because, according to Danish Ali, the “overwhelming majority in the party is with the president.” These include “all state units except a group in Kerala,” four of the five JD(S) members of Parliament (the fifth happens to be their leader Veerendra Kumar) and around 70 of the 75 national committee members.

Today’s statement is “a joke” because “they have no right to call a National Council. That can only be called by the national executive, which can only be convened by the party president, says Ali.

Mohan, ailing after a stint in hospital but determined to save the party’s credentials, agrees. Speaking to The Indian Express, he said only the president could convene a National Council, or the secretary-general, on the president’s advice, was authorized to convene it. Since the secretary-general is an arch Gowda loyalist, Mohan and his friends know that officially they can do little. But they are trying to get “like-minded” colleagues on board to mount a challenge against Deve Gowda.

Mohan is also clear that “public pressure” through statements as the one issued today will have no effect on Deve Gowda. “He is too immersed in putra moh to listen to reason,” says Mohan, pointing out that Siddaramiah was driven out of the party because Deve Gowda was keen on promoting Kumaraswamy.

Deve Gowda loyalists’ take is the exact opposite. In their reckoning, the former PM was genuinely “anguished” at his son’s move to join hands with the BJP but has come to realise that Kumaraswamy had taken that course only to save the JD(S) from the machinations of Siddaramiah & company.

But such claims cut little ice with the dissidents. If Mohan cannot stomach the idea of secularism in the company of the BJP, Veerendra Kumar knows that the word is essential if the five JD(S) MLAs are to remain a part of the ruling LDF in Kerala.

And then there is the Chamundeswari byelection. Deve Gowda is camping there day and night to ensure the victory of his candidate Shivappa. And though the signatories of today’s statement did not openly back Siddaramiah, they declared that “we are determined to assure the defeat of the Deve Gowda-BJP supported candidate.”

If Siddaramiah wins, the ranks of the anti-Deve Gowda dissidents will certainly swell. But if Shivappa does, Deve Gowda’s hold in the party will strengthen. The Battle of the Bracket has only just begun.