Bengaluru: The oath taking ceremony of Janata Dal (S) H D Kumaraswamy, who will be sworn in as Karnataka Chief Minister on Wednesday, will turn into a platform for the third front to launch a joint fight against BJP for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. The Karnataka JD(S) has invited top leaders of non-NDA parties for the event and this include UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi, AICC President Rahul Gandhi, BSP supremo Mayawati, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamta Banerjee, Kerala chief Minister Pnarayi Vijayan, Delhi Chief Minsiter Arvind Kejriwal, Andhra Pradesh CM Chandrababu Naidu, Telangana CM K Chandrashekar Rao, Former UP Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, RDD leader Tejaswi Yadav, RLD founder Ajit Singh and DMK President M K Stalin and actor turned politician Kamal Haasan.
Speaking to reporters here, JD(S) floor leader in Karnataka Legislative Council Basavaraj Horatti said leaders of secular parties will get a chance to come on one stage when Mr Kumaraswamy takes oath as Chief Minister. ‘’We are providing a platform for secular parties that are against the BJP. However, this also includes Congress,’’ he hastened to add. JD(S) which won 38 seats in the 224-member Karnataka Assembly will form a coalition government in Karnataka with Congress which had lost power by winning just 78 seats. BJP which had emerged as the single largest party with 104 failed to prove majority and now will sit in opposition.
Elections were held for 222 seats while it was postponed in two other constituencies. On Karnataka elections, he accused BJP of making former Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa a ‘scape goat’. Though BJP did not have required numbers the party insisted on him to seek trust vote and the party lost and Mr Yeddyurappa his face. ‘’They have created such a scenario that even if the Chief Minister’s post is offered by the BJP in the future, Mr Yeddyurappa will ‘run away’ from it,’’ he added. JD(S) spokesperson Ramesh Babu said there had been an ‘undeclared’ emergency in the country and it was time secular parties come together to chalk out future programme. It will be a good platform for such parties when Mr Kumaraswamy takes oath tomorrow. (UNI)