BENGALURU, Oct 19:
Janata Dal (Secular) patriarch H D Deve Gowda on Thursday removed the party’s Karnataka unit president and his close aide C M Ibrahim, days after the latter raised a banner of revolt against the party’s decision to forge an alliance with the BJP for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
Gowda dissolved the state working committee and appointed his son and former Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy as its ad-hoc president.
Ibrahim reacted sharply to his sacking and warned of mounting a legal challenge against it, besides asserting he will reach out to the people.
Upset with the removal, he termed Gowda’s decision as “Vinasha Kaale Vipareeta Buddhi” (As the doom approaches, one’s intelligence functions perversely).
Addressing a press conference here, Gowda said, “Ibrahim has been removed as per the party constitution. I have removed him, and the new president H D Kumaraswamy has been appointed.”
Kumaraswamy, a two-time CM of the state, is also the party’s legislative unit president.
Gowda’s action came after Ibrahim revolted against the party’s decision to strike an electoral pact with the BJP.
He had held a meeting with “like-minded” people of the JD(S) on October 16 and announced that the ‘party’ led by him was the original one. He also announced the formation of a core committee that would submit a memorandum to the party supremo that the JD(S) should not go with the BJP.
Gowda, a former Prime Minister, said all the state units of the JD(S) including Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Maharashtra had given their consent to align with the BJP.
“In Kerala we are part of the government and our MLA is a minister there. These units understood the situation that made us to go with the BJP and supported our move. Our minister in the Left party’s government (K Krishnankutty) in Kerala has given consent to us,” he 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,” Gowda claimed.
He insisted many Muslim leaders in the JD(S) have also supported the party’s decision to join hands with the saffron party. Challenging the JD(S) patriarch for sacking him, Ibrahim said the party working committee cannot be dissolved.
“I will take up a legal battle as well as take the fight to the people’s court,” the former union minister said.
Warning of holding public meetings to expose the functioning of the JD(S) across Karnataka, Ibrahim said Gowda has once again proved JD(S) was a family business.
Ibrahim sought to know where is the power to remove him from the post of state president and appoint Kumaraswamy as the chief.
“Today Kerala and Tamil Nadu units have passed resolution (against the alliance). What did you do to them? You could not touch them, but you found a poor man to sack. God will not forgive you.”
Ibrahim, a former Union Civil Aviation Minister, alleged Kumaraswamy struck the alliance deal with Union Home Minister Amit Shah in the presence of his son Nikhil Kumaraswamy instead of his elder brother H D Revanna’s son Prajwal, who is an MP from Hassan.
Earlier, the Kerala unit of JD(S) had rejected the decision of the party leadership to join the NDA and said it will stand firm with the Left front in the state.
After the state committee meeting held at Kochi on October 7, JD(S) Kerala president, Mathew T Thomas, said the high command made the announcement without discussion in any party forum. (PTI)
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