Headed by former prime minister HD Deve Gowda, the JD-S has long been a strong third player in the southern state where the Congress and the BJP have been the two main parties.
As Karnataka gears up for D-Day, with most exit poll projections predicting a hung assembly while putting the Congress in the lead, the outcome will boil down to how the battle for some key constituencies play out.
Kumaraswamy's father HD Deve Gowda also downplayed GT Devegowda's comment.
'Let me narrate the background as to why Siddaramaiah was taken from my party to the Congress.' 'He belongs to a particular backward community. So by taking Siddaramaiah from my party, it was going to be more advantageous for the Congress.' 'Whatever may be the merits and demerits of the caste equation, it is a consideration for all the parties.' 'The BJP is also playing the caste guard.'
The marathon meeting, spread over two sessions and kept under wraps, came a day after top leaders of socialist-leaning parties attended SP's silver jubilee meet here -- a move seen as an attempt by Mulayam to forge an alliance ahead of the assembly polls hardly a few months away.
The joint statement was issued by senior leaders of 13 opposition parties, including interim president of Congress Sonia Gandhi, the Nationalist Congress Party patriarch Sharad Pawar, and the West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
He said he will be soon taking a decision on his political future and wants to contest the assembly polls from Kunigal seat.
Rahul Gandhi aslos asked the JD-S to clarify whether it was with the BJP and the Sangh Pariwar.
Amid speculation about the number of MLAs supporting him and senior party colleague Siddaramaiah for the post of Karnataka chief minister, state Congress president D K Shivakumar on Monday said his strength is 135, as under his presidency, the party won the said number of seats in the assembly polls.
'There were areas where the JD-S put up weak candidates against the Congress to benefit the BJP.'
Leaders from across the political spectrum came out and congratulated Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray after he was sworn in as the Maharashtra chief minister.
The electoral fortunes of top leaders-- Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai of the BJP, Congress heavyweights Siddaramaiah and D K Shivakumar and JD-S' H D Kumaraswamy, among many others will be known on Saturday.
The state is mainly witnessing a three-cornered contest between the ruling BJP, the Congress and former prime minister H D Deve Gowda's Janata Dal (Secular).
Amid growing chorus from Siddaramaiah's camp in Karnataka Congress to project him as the chief ministerial face of the party for the 2023 assembly polls, his son and Varuna MLA on Wednesday asserted that his father has a chance to become CM once again.
Kharge, who was popularly known as "solillada Saradara", (a leader without defeat) faced his first electoral loss in his political life spanning several decades against BJP's Umesh Jadhav in Gulbarga by a margin of 95,452 votes in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
In a move aimed at consolidation of opposition forces, six constituents of the erstwhile 'Janata Parivar' will soon become one party as their leaders on Thursday authorised Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav to work out the "modalities" in that direction.
It is early to make out which way the wind is blowing, but there is no denying that challenges for the BJP, far outweigh the advantages in this region, notes Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay.
"Modi is the first prime minister of the country who served langar to the devotees in the GoldenTemple," Chief Information Officer Gurbachan Singh said.
Senior Congress leader Siddaramaiah on Tuesday reiterated that upcoming assembly elections will be his last electoral battle, but he will remain active in Karnataka politics.
The bill seeks to reserve one-third of all seats for women in the Lok Sabha and the state legislative assemblies.
Vajpayee had resigned just 13 days after being in power due to lack of numbers.
The BJP on Thursday alleged that the opposition parties have decided to boycott the inauguration of the new Parliament building by Prime Minister Narendra Modi just because it has been built at his initiative.
More than two decades after the then Janata Dal disintegrated, six of its constituents merged on Wednesday to form a new party which will be headed by Samajwadi Party president Mulayam Singh Yadav.
The 78 year-old Yeddiyurappa was earlier hospitalised on August 2, 2020 after he tested positive for coronavirus.
He also asserted that everything has gone smoothly for the party in the assembly polls and the government will be formed soon.
The BJP stalwart continues to be in the intensive care unit of the Cardio-thoracic Centre at the hospital.
Polling is being held for 224 seats in what is being seen mainly as a three-cornered contest between the ruling BJP, the Congress and former prime minister H D Deve Gowda's Janata Dal-Secular.
Women politicians bring to politics and policy a sensitivity that most of their male counterparts, at least until a generation back, lacked.
Siddaramaiah exuded confidence that the Congress would get an absolute majority.
It is time the political leaderships in this country arrived at a common ground over issues of foreign and security policy concerns. There has to be a greater communication between the government and the Opposition leaderships for the nation to present a unified face against the rest of the world, advises N Sathiya Moorthy.
In UP and Bengal, it is willing to sacrifice its interests to stop the BJP and would work towards ensuring the BJP did not win incremental seats in Odisha and Telangana.
Ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, 11 parties on Tuesday got together with a vow to defeat Congress-led United Progressive Alliances and prevent the Bharatiya Janata Party from coming to power by presenting themselves as an alternative to them.
Pushing efforts to firm up a Third Front, top leaders of the Janata Dal-United, Left and the Janta Dal-Secular met in New Delhi on Monday and decided to convene a meeting of 11 parties after the end of the current Parliament session to give concrete shape to a non-Congress and non-BJP alternative.
"The BJP has four Bs -- 'Badhta Bharat' and 'Banta Bharat'. Those who are forming an alliance have four Bs -- 'bua' (aunt), 'bhatija' (nephew), 'bhai' (brother) and 'behen' (sister)," Shah said, accusing the opposition parties of dynastic politics.
The ruling Congress was on Tuesday ahead of the Bharatiya Janata Party in the taluk panchayat and zilla panchayat elections in Karnataka as the two parties were locked in a keen contest.
'They have no incentive to be part of either the NDA or INDIA at this stage, but they may hedge their bets towards the winning coalition in the post-poll setting.'
Portfolio sharing had turned out to be a thorny issue between the Congress and JD-S and was thrashed out after much haggling, with both parties announcing an agreement on June one.
His father Somappa Rayappa Bommai was the state chief minister during 1988-1989.
Ignoring JD-S' request for support, the Congress did not withdraw its second candidate Khan from the fray and issued a whip to all its MLAs asking them to vote for the party's candidates.
While 10 persons from Karnataka have been confirmed dead, at least seven of them are said to be JD-S workers.
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