Will JD(S) support BJP post poll?

Bangalore, Apr 12: In a controversial statement, Janata Dal (Secular) national president H?D?Deve Gowda said that support of regional parties like JD(S) was necessary for BJP, Congress or third front to form the government at the centre.

Speaking at a press conference after the release of JD(S) manifesto in Bangalore Mr Gowda said: “I firmly believe that every political party needs to take the support of the regional parties like JD(S) to form a government.”

“Be it the BJP?or the Congress, or even the third front, the regional parties will play a prominent role in forming the government,” he added.

Manifesto

The JD(S) manifesto promised new inter-state river water and rural India policies and vowed to protect Karnataka's interests which the national parties had "totally failed" to safeguard.

The manifesto said elected representatives of Congress and BJP have become "mute spectators" and not taken any action in getting due share of water and other resources from the Centre.

"Both Congress and BJP failed to protect the interest of the state because they concentrated on strengthening their political existence," the manifesto said.

In order to set right 'injustice' in sharing the Cauvery water, JDS would pressurise the Centre to declare a national policy on sharing inter-state river water and is ready to fight for it, if necessary, Mr Gowda said.

Following a separate policy for each river has proved detrimental to Karnataka and it did not get its due share in distribution of both Cauvery and Krishna rivers, he said.

Under the new policy for rural India, the manifesto said that instead of considering rural and urban sector as separate units, it is necessary to consider them as complementary to each other.

The goal of total development can be achieved by linking rural development to urban development programmes and it is necessary for state and central governments to join hands in executing this kind of schemes, the manifesto said.

It also said the country is in a period of political and financial transition and in the coming years the role of national parties would be negligent in national politics. At this juncture, the manifesto said, regional parties are gaining importance and national parties are losing their hold on political happenings.

The manifesto also said the party believes corruption flows from higher to lower level and it feels necessary to take steps to remove graft at higher levels in government.