The Janata Dal (Secular) has proved to be a promiscuous political partner in Karnataka. It has remained the common factor in both governments formed in the state in the last 40 months and could well be part of the third. It has been swinging between the BJP and Congress to keep itself alive. The BJP is also willing to go to any extent to form a government in Karnataka. Both are acting in self-interest. But the history of Sangh Parivar-Janata Parivar relations suggests that the BJP stands to gain and the JD(S) will only lose.

Karnataka could follow the pattern of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Gujarat — three major states that are now under BJP rule. In all these states, the BJP and its predecessor, BJS, emerged as an alliance partner of Janata but eventually replaced it, leaving a bipolar party system.

All these states had Janata chief ministers following the post-Emergency wave of 1977. The government comprised of Jan Sanghis, Socialist groups and Lok Dal elements. For instance, Kailash Joshi from the Jan Sangh segment became MP chief minister in 1977, but 77 MLAs of the Janata Party were from non-Jan Sangh groups. In 1980, the Jan Sangh was reborn as BJP and the rest of Janata Party went in different directions.

Towards the end of the 1980s, all the splinter groups gathered under the Janata Dal umbrella. In the 1989 Lok Sabha elections a grand alliance between the Janata Dal and BJP was formed across India. In the 1990 assembly elections, the BJP-JD combine won power in all three states. In MP Sunder Lal Patwa of BJP became chief minister, in Gujarat JD’s Chimanbhai Patel and in Rajasthan BJP’s B.S. Shekhawat became chief minister. When the JD and BJP parted ways, the JD split in all three states.

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