Former Karnataka Chief Minister and JD(S) leader HD Kumaraswamy on Thursday said Kannadigas have decided to remove both national parties, BJP and Congress, from the state.
Ahead of the Karnataka Assembly election, which will be held on May 10, Kumaraswamy trained his guns on former CM BS Yediyurappa and questioned his claim of BJP winning 150 seats. Votes will be counted on May 13.
"On what basis BS Yediyurappa is saying that they'll get over 150 seats? They (BJP) think they can purchase votes by throwing money," ANI quoted Kumaraswamy as saying.
He further said that people were not happy with the performance of the Basavaraj Bommai-led government.
"People aren't happy with BJP's performance. Kannadigas have decided to remove both national parties from state," the JD(S) leader said.
Reacting to the JD(S) leader's remarks, Congress Karnataka president DK Shivakumar said, "We have neither called him nor asked him to come with us. The people of Karnataka have decided to vote for the Congress and our government will be formed here."
The JD(S) had emerged as a king maker in the 2018 election as none of the parties was able to secure a majority. Kumaraswamy became the CM after JD(S) entered into a post-poll alliance with the Congress. However, the government lasted barely a year, with BJP weaning away MLAs, leading to the collapse of the JD(S)-Congress government in July 2019.
In the present Assembly, the BJP has 119 seats, followed by the Congress with 75. The JD (S) has 28 MLAs.
The BJP will hope to buck a nearly four-decade-old trend to retain power and script history while the Congress will seek to upstage its saffron rival.
In fact, an opinion poll conducted by ABP-CVoter found that Congress is likely to get a simple majority on its own in Karnataka and dislodge BJP in the only southern state it is in power.
The survey has indicated that Congress is likely to get anywhere between 115-127 seats in the 224-member Assembly. The majority mark for a party to stake claim to form a government is 113.
The BJP, which was the single largest party in the House in the 2018 election winning 104 seats, is expected to bag 68-80 seats this time with a vote share of 34.7 per cent. Deve Gowda's JD(S), which won 37 seats in the last election, is expected to see a dip and win 23-35 seats in the 2023 polls.