Will attend NDA meeting if invited, declares Kumaraswamy

BENGALURU: Amid the talk of a strategic partnership between his party and the BJP, former chief minister and Janata Dal (Secular) leader H D Kumaraswamy on Monday said that he will attend the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) meeting in Delhi on Tuesday “if invited with due respect”.

Speaking exclusively to Public TV, Kumaraswamy said that so far, he has not received any invitation either from the NDA or the United Progressive Alliance (UPA). “I will not attend the Opposition Unity meeting, but if invited for the NDA meeting, I will participate and put forth my views. So far, there has been no talk about any central ministry or opposition leader in the state and I don’t need those posts too. There are capable leaders in the BJP and I would request them to elect a leader. The people’s mandate has been for us to sit in the opposition and I will discharge my duties effectively”, he said.

This is for the first time that the JD(S) leader has shown his inclination towards aligning with the BJP after the latter had openly announced that there will be no tie-up ahead of the Assembly election. Emphasising that he has not set forth any conditions like a central ministry or opposition leader in the Assembly, Kumaraswamy said, “If I’m invited, I will hold discussions on facing next year’s Lok Sabha polls together. But so far, neither me nor party patriarch H D Deve Gowda have received any invitation”, he noted.

Training his guns of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, who had attacked the JD(S) on the floor of the House last week, Kumaraswamy challenged him to build a new party and win five seats. “He went to the Congress and is now beaming after implementing several Bhagyas. If he had spoken about the JD(S) and the Pancharatna programme in the Assembly, I would have replied to him then and there itself. He tutors others on Kannada. I never said I will dissolve my party if we don’t get 123 seats. I had only said that if we win 123 seats and if our government does not implement the Pancharatna programmes during its tenure, I would dissolve the party”.

Further, attacking Siddaramaiah, the former CM said, “He claimed that our party won 58 seats because of him (when Siddaramaiah was in the JD(S). But in 1999, when he was the party president, we had won only 10 seats. I have worked hard and won 40 seats on my own and I don’t need to learn from him how to build the party”.