Secular parties under Cong leadership will defeat BJP in 2019: Deve Gowda

Bengaluru, October 20 

Former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda on Saturday said the country's secular parties will come together under the leadership of the Congress to defeat the BJP in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls as he denied reports that the grand alliance was losing its sheen.

The Janata Dal-Secular supremo accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of indulging in politics of polarisation and exploiting public sentiments, be it the Ram temple issue or the ongoing Sabarimala row.

"Some development will take place before Parliament election (and) some will take place after the election is over," he told reporters here.

"Whatever may be the differences, they (secular parties) will come together under the leadership of the national party Congress to see to it that the BJP is not in power," he added.

The JDS is running a coalition government with Congress in Karnataka which came into being after a post-poll arrangement between the two parties following a fractured verdict in the May assembly polls.

On reports that the grand alliance was running out of steam after regional parties refused to forge alliances with the Congress for the state assembly polls, Deve Gowda said, "The problem is in every state... There will be two or three regional parties and at the same time the Congress which is a national party is also powerful in some of these states." 

"So, in some states there will be a coalition and in some states it will not be possible," he added.

"Seat sharing before election in some states would be successful and in some others, it may not be successful, but that does not mean the coalition has broken into pieces," he said further.

Recently, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati had ruled out a poll pact with the Congress for the assembly elections in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh.

Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav too had reacted in a similar fashion, which was seen as a blow to the Congress' attempt to form a grand alliance to defeat the BJP.

Responding to a question whether BJP was raising issues like Ram temple and Sabarimala to score political points, Deve Gowda said, "There is no doubt about that, the main motto of BJP is to divide and rule." - PTI