Amid controversy over JD(S) supremo H D Deve Gowda’s statement on alliance with the BJP, Kerala Electricity Minister K Krishnankutty on Sunday said that the state unit has decided to stand independently.
Krishnankutty said he and state JD(S) president Mathew T Thomas met with the party leadership in Karnataka and informed them that an alliance with the BJP was not acceptable.
We told them that what they did was not right, he told a TV channel.
“We informed them that we are ending the relationship and that we would remain independent and then we came back. We had a committee meeting here and decided to stand independently. Everyone was in agreement with that and that is the factual position,” he said.
This comes on the backdrop of Congress-led UDP alliance accusing the ruling CPI-M of not breaking ties with Janata Dal (Secular).
Exactly, a month ago, the JDS had announced an alliance with the BJP in Karnataka, and joined the BJP-led NDA ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. Former Chief Minister and JDS leader Kumaraswamy had made the announcement after meeting Union Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP chief JP Nadda.
On Friday, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan rejected claims that he had endorsed LDF’s partner JDS’ alliance with BJP in Karnataka, calling it “both baseless and devoid of truth”.
Deve Gowda had on the next day said that there was ‘some confusion’ in Kerala’s CPI(M) with regard to his party’s alliance with the BJP in Karnataka, and clarified he never said that the ruling Left party in the neighbouring state supported the tie-up.
CPI(M) state secretary M V Govindan had on Saturday said there was no need to remove Krishnankutty from the Kerala cabinet as the state unit of the JD(S) had clarified that they ‘stand strong’ on the Left front.