Opinion: JDS-BJP Pact Could Be First Step Towards Ending Karnataka's "Adjustment Politics"

Electoral necessities almost always outweigh ideological foundations while forging political alliances. Hence, it's no surprise for former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda's Janata Dal (Secular), which as the name suggests has little ideological affinity to the BJP, to join an alliance with the ruling BJP led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

While the JDS and BJP have been allies in the past - the BS Yediyurappa-led BJP state unit formed a coalition government in Karnataka with Deve Gowda's son HD Kumaraswamy as Chief Minister in 2006 - the entry of the JDS into the NDA now is a very different chapter in the regional party's politics.

This is the first time the JDS will form a pre-poll alliance while it is not in power running a coalition government in Karnataka. It has always wielded the "brute" post-poll bargaining power. Whenever Kumaraswamy had forged an alliance, it was to occupy the Chief Minster's post. In 2019, he fought the Lok Sabha polls as a Congress ally only because the Congress - which had 80 MLAs compared to JDS's 37 - had ceded the Chief Minister's post to him. Similarly, in 2006 he broke his alliance with the BJP as soon as he had to give up Chief Ministership.

Secondly, and more importantly, the JDS is at its lowest ebb. It was battered by the Congress in the assembly polls, ending up with just 19 seats and a 13 per cent vote share, its lowest ever since its formation in 1999. So, this time it's an alliance for the very survival for the regional force. The BJP is in the driver's seat and in it for the long run. There are compelling regional reasons for the national party too for entering this alliance.