Alliance with Congress to grow stronger in Lok Sabha elections, says JD-S

The Janata Dal-Secular, which stitched a post-poll alliance with the Congress for Karnataka Assembly elections, on Sunday said that the two parties will fight the 2019 Lok Sabha elections together.

“The alliance of Congress & JD(S) will be really long. You’ll see the alliance grow stronger in the Lok Sabha elections too,” said JD-S spokesperson Danish Ali.

The Karnataka Assembly elections, which were held on May 12, gave a fractured mandate with the BJP emerging as the single largest party but falling short of simple majority.

As soon as the trends projected the BJP single largest party, the Congress offered unconditional support to the JD-S and formed a post-poll alliance to keep the saffron party out of the power.

The BJP termed the alliance between the Congress and the JD-S an “unholy nexus” and said that it would not last long.

“The new government born out of the unholy nexus of Congress and JD-S won’t stay for long. Only the BJP can give the stable government. The mandate was given to BJP as the people of the state had rejected Congress,” Union Minister Ananth Kumar said.

The minister said that it was a shame for the Congress party to “fall at the feet of the JD-S” just to stop the BJP.

While the BJP called the Congress-JD-S alliance “unholy”, the Opposition parties termed it as “regional front” against the saffron party.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said that had the Congress gone into a pre-poll alliance with the JD(S), the result would have been different.

Congratulations poured in from Opposition party leaders as soon as Yeddyurappa resigned from the post of Karnataka CM just before the floor test.

“Democracy wins. Congratulations Karnataka. Congratulations Deve Gowda Ji, Kumaraswamy Ji, Congress and others. Victory of the ‘regional’ front (sic),” Banerjee tweeted.

Former Uttar Pradesh chief minister and Samajwadi party chief Akhilesh Yadav said, “Today, the people’s mandate has prevailed over money power.