Former prime minister and national president of Janata Dal (Secular) HD Deve Gowda on Thursday removed CM Ibrahim, the head of the party’s Karnataka unit, from office. Along with dissolving the state working committee, Gowda named his son, H. D. Kumaraswamy, a former chief minister, the party’s ad hoc state unit president.
“To fortify the party, our national president decided today to disband the previous unit and declare the creation of an ad hoc committee under my direction… It will be communicated to him (CM Ibrahim), of course. It is my duty to make the party stronger. My primary focus is growing my party,” Kumaraswamy stated to the news agency ANI.
This event occurred a few days after Ibrahim strongly criticized the BJP-JD (S) coalition for the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections. On Monday, Ibrahim said that the JD(S) party he led was the original one during a meeting with “like-minded” members. In addition, he declared the establishment of a core committee whose task would be to present a document to the party chief advocating against the JD (S) joining the BJP. Earlier on Tuesday, Kumaraswamy threatened Ibrahim with dire consequences for raising a revolt banner against the party for its support of the BJP. “If his (Ibrahim’s) party is original, then let him put up a sign that he is the original one. Who has stopped him? Let him do whatever he wants. He is free to do it. It is left to him,” Kumaraswamy had said.
The former union minister, Ibrahim, had suggested that the JD(S) would split, but he also insisted that his group embodies the real spirit of the ‘secular’ party. “Anybody who wishes to accompany us is welcome to do so; everyone else is free to depart. He’d said, “We’ll see whose side has more MLAs.” In anticipation of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the JD (S) joined the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and declared an alliance with the BJP in September.