A day after Janata Dal (Secular) supremo H D Deve Gowda retracted his claim that the Kerala Chief Minister had given full concurrence to move forward with his party’s alliance with the BJP in Karnataka, his son and former Karnataka CM HD Kumaraswamy has expressed his gratitude to Pinarayi Vijayan for allowing the Kerala unit of his party to be a part of the LDF government in the state.

Kumaraswamy on Saturday said that it was the magnanimity of Pinarayi Vijayan that allowed the Kerala unit of the Janata Dal (Secular) to remain in the LDF. While thanking the Kerala Chief Minister for allowing the Kerala unit of his party to remain a part of the LDF in the state, Kumaraswamy dismissed reports that Vijayan had supported the Janata Dal-Secular’s decision to join the NDA alliance in Karnataka.

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Deve Gowda on Friday retracted his claim that the Kerala Chief Minister had given his nod for the JDS-BJP alliance in Karnataka, after Pinarayi Vijayan lashed out at the former Prime Minister accusing him of making a “factually wrong and absurd” statement to justify his political overtures.

“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. I never said the CPI-M in Kerala supports the BJP-JDS alliance,” Gowda  said on Friday in a post on X.

Chief Minister Vijayan on Friday came out against the claim of  the former Prime Minister saying that  the statement by Deve Gowda is ‘factually wrong’ and ‘utter nonsense.’

“At no stage has the CPI-M ever tried to interfere in the internal matters of the JDS. As the Chief Minister, there never arose a situation where I had to intervene in their internal affairs. We cannot be held responsible for such blabbering,” CM Vijayan said.

Congress leadership in Kerala said that Janata Dal-Secular supremo Deve Gowda’s revelation on Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has exposed the CPI-M’s unholy nexus with the BJP.

Senior Congress leader and Opposition Leader in the Kerala Assembly VD Satheesan said that Gowda’s statement has proved the Congress’ allegation that the CPI-M has been nurturing an unholy nexus with the  BJP.

KPCC president K Sudhakaran said that Pinarayi Vijayan’s true colours have come out through Gowda’s revelation. Sudhakaran said Pinarayi  Vijayan is falling at the feet of the BJP, fearing he will be arrested by the central agencies in gold smuggling and Life Mission cases.