Former Prime Minister and JDS supremo H D Deve Gowda.
Credit: DH Photo
Bengaluru: JD(S) patriarch H D Deve Gowda on Saturday said there is some confusion in Kerala's CPI(M) with regard to his party's alliance with the BJP in Karnataka, and clarified that he never said the ruling Left party in the neighbouring state supported the tie-up.
"There is some confusion about my statement on the CPI(M). My Communist friends do not seem to have followed what I said nor the context in which I said," Gowda said on the social media platform X.
"I only said my party unit in Kerala is getting along with the LDF government as things within my party units outside Karnataka remain unresolved after our alliance with the BJP. I wish CPI(M) leaders had chosen their words better or had sought clarification," the JD(S) patriarch said.
While removing state JD(S) Karnataka unit president and former union minister C M Ibrahim from the state working committee by dissolving it -- for raising a banner of revolt against the party leadership for tying up with the BJP -- Gowda had said, "Kerala's Left government's Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has given full concurrence to move forward in Karnataka with the BJP to save the party. This is the position." However, Vijayan on Friday rejected Gowda's claim that the Left leader had approved of Kerala ruling LDF partner JD(S) having an alliance with the BJP in Karnataka, and said it was both 'baseless and devoid of truth'.
The Kerala Chief Minister even asked the former Prime Minister to correct his statement.
In a strongly worded statement, Vijayan said the JD(S) state unit had made it clear that they were categorically against the association with the BJP and that they would stand strong with the Left Front in Kerala.
"This is not the first time Deve Gowda is joining hands with the BJP. We all remember 2006, when JD(S) joined the BJP. He left this ideology and associated with the BJP to get a ministerial post for his son," Vijayan said.
Vijayan also attacked the Congress which has alleged that there are links between the CPI(M) and the BJP, and asked the grand old party not to "make a fool out of themselves."