- Congress-JDS alliance broke after 17 MLAs defected and Karnataka government collapsed in 2019
- Kharge had joked that the JDS dated Congress but married BJP, sparking laughter in Rajya Sabha
- The JDS had joined NDA in 2023, ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha election
The "marriage" with the Congress in 2019 was an "abusive relationship" and so it ended in divorce, former Prime Minister and Janata Dal Secular chief HD Deve Gowda said today, responding to Mallikarjun Kharge's jest in Rajya Sabha that his party had a love affair with the Congress but married the BJP.
In a long post on X to back his argument, Deve Gowda also summed up his version of the events in 2019, when the Congress-JDS alliance broke after a mass exodus of MLAs and the coalition government in Karnataka collapsed after a trust vote.
In the post, Deve Gowda said he was not present for today's session in parliament, but if he were to respond in the same language, 'I would like to say that I was in a "forced marriage" with the Congress but had to "divorce" them because it was an abusive relationship'".
Read: "Loved Us, Married Modiji": M Kharge's HD Deve Gowda Remark Makes PM Laugh
"Shri. Kharge will remember that in 2018 Congress sent Shri. Ghulam Nabi Azad and offered Shri. Kumaraswamy the chief ministership. I did not consent to this. I told in everybody's presence that Shri. Kharge should be made Chief Minister. Shri. Siddaramaiah was also there. However, Shri. Azad insisted on Shri. Kumaraswamy's leadership. But after all this song, dance and a wedding what did they do in 2019? They dumped us. How many Congress MLAs defected to the BJP and who sent them across is now common knowledge. If Congress had acted against the person who instigated defection that day, today my friend, Shri. Kharge, would be in a better position as AICC President," his post read.
The joke that sparked the post was cracked by the Congress chief during his farewell speech in the upper house.
Speaking of former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda and NCP founder Sharad Pawar, whose current terms in the Rajya Sabha are about to end, Kharge said: "I have known him for 54 years and have worked with him. But I don't know what happened. He dated us, loved us, but married Prime Minister Narendra Modi". As laughter rang across the house, even Prime Minister Narendra Modi was seen smiling.
Back in 2019, the exodus of 17 MLAs - 14 from the Congress and three from the JDS - was blamed on "Operation Lotus" by the BJP.
The JDS, though, had blamed Congress's Siddaramaiah as well, saying he was against the idea of an alliance from the beginning and had done his best to egg on the disgruntled MLAs instead of reasoning with them.
After the HD Kumaraswamy government collapsed, a BJP government headed by BS Yediyurappa came to power. In 2023, ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha election, the JDS officially joined the NDA.
