From Our Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru
Bengaluru, Nov 9: The triumph of the regional parties JD(U)-RJD combine under the leadership of Nitish Kumar and Lalu Prasad Yadav with the Congress party as the junior partner in the grand alliance of secular forces against the BJP-led NDA in the just concluded Bihar assembly polls seems to have galvanised the H D Deve Gowda-led JD(S) into thinking that it has all the chances of bouncing back.
While the JD(S) national supremo and former Prime Minister Deve Gowda has already expressed hopes that the party will do its best to capture power in the State in Karnataka’s assembly polls due in 2018, the State JD(S) chief and former Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy has already started planning the party’s revival strategy with renewed focus on famers.
With JD(S) reasonably strong in the Vokkaliga-dominated Old Mysore Region, Kumaraswamy believes that the party has to strengthen its base and woo the voters in the Lingayat-predominant North Karnataka region.
"We will make sincere and determined efforts to regain our lost base in the North Karnataka by focusing on issues of farmers and agriculture, which in any case are the core strengths of the party," he said.
Kumaraswamy, who visited Hubballi, said the party is organising a `‘contact farmer’’ programme and explained that the objective was to provide moral support to distressed farmers and their families.
Speaking to reporters in Hubballi on Monday before meeting the family members of farmers who committed suicide in Haveri and Dharwad districts, the JD(S) leader said the party’s leadership would meet the family members of deceased farmers and give away Rs. 50,000 cash as part of the drive to lessen their loan burden and boost their morale.
Although the party did not have any base in Haveri district, it would not keep quiet, Kumaraswamy said.
"We will be meeting the family members of 69 farmers, who committed suicide, and hand over Rs. 50,000 each to them without bothering to look into the reasons for the suicide," he said.
The former Chief Minister said JD(S) would be holding "Contact Farmer" programmes in all the Assembly segments of the State under which a group of 20 to 25 youth of the respective assembly constituency would be meeting the farmers' families.
"The team of youth will meet every farmer and collect data from them about their land holding, revenue, the loan burden and other details. They will counsel the farmers against taking the extreme step of committing suicide," he said.
Terming the task of rebuilding the confidence of the farming community as a challenging task, Kumaraswamy said that the exercise would continue for a year.
"We are not looking at political gains," he said and explained that the first priority for the party was to stand behind the farmers in distress.
Referring to the problem of guidelines preventing the release of compensation to the families of farmers who committed suicide, Kumaraswamy said that his party would raise the issue of changing the guidelines on providing compensation to farmers in the forthcoming legislature session.
The JD(S) will continue to voice the demands and grievances of the farmers, he said.
"We will also make an attempt to mobilise public opinion on the issue so that the State government initiates step for amending the guidelines," he said.