Violation of coalition 'dharma' will spell doom for Cong-JD(S) govt in K'taka: Deve Gowda

JD(S) supremo H D Deve Gowda Sunday said violation of coalition "dharma" by any one of the partners would only spell disaster for the Congress-JD(S) government in Karnataka as it would benefit the communal forces in the state.

"If anybody thinks he is superior and thinks of dominating the coalition partner, and also violates the coalition dharma, that ultimately is going to be disastrous, because it will benefit the communal forces in Karnataka," the former prime minister told PTI in an interview here.

To keep the communal forces at bay, he said, both the Congress and the Janata Dal (Secular) were working on a formula for the smooth functioning of the coalition government.

Deve Gowda's comments come in the wake of senior JD(S) leader Basavaraj Horatti's allegations that the Congress is violating coalition dharma and not allowing Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy to function in peace.

Replying to a query, the JD(S) chief downplayed Horatti's comments that former chief minister Siddaramaiah was disinterested in the smooth running of the coalition government.

"I don't think Siddaramaiah has that intention. Look, he was the chief minister for five years, naturally he would like his programmes to be implemented and some may have reservations over it. All this happens in a democratic set-up and also in all parties," he said.

Horatti had targeted Siddaramaiah, who is the Congress-JD(S) coalition coordination committee head, by alleging that the latter was disinterested in seeing the government run smoothly.

Replying to another query, Deve Gowda said the alliance would help both the Congress and the JD(S) perform well in Karnataka in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, compared to the TDP-Congress alliance in Telangana, where both the parties were routed in the recently-held Assembly election. The Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), led by K Chandrashekar Rao (KCR), which had fought the electoral battle alone, had emerged victorious.

"The TRS won the election because of schemes which benefitted the farmers, who voted for KCR. Likewise, Kumaraswamy, the Karnataka Chief Minister, is doing good work to pull out farmers from distress by way of loan waiver. I am hopeful that the JD(S) would do well in the Lok Sabha election," Deve Gowda said.

The former prime minister had Saturday said the JD(S) planned to field candidates in 12 of the 28 Lok Sabha seats in Karnataka. Seat-sharing between the Congress and the JD(S) is expected to be finalised by January 15 and Deve Gowda is confident of getting what his party wants.