A meeting of Janata Dal (S) leaders from various states held in Thiruvananthapuram on Wednesday decided to hold a national plenary session of the party at Bengaluru on December 9 to formally reject the decision of party national president H D Deve Gowda to join the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance.
Ahead of the plenary, a letter will be given to Gowda urging him to revoke the tie-up with the BJP.
Party national vice-president C K Nanu said that state presidents of the party from 11 states, including C M Ibrahim from Karnataka, attended the meeting in person and four state presidents attended the meeting online.
'Unless Deve Gowda revokes the decision to join the NDA, the plenary to be held on December 9 will formally reject the decision and go ahead with further actions against Gowda for taking a unilateral decision. The party's 'secular' ideology needs to be protected," he said.
Even though the meeting held in Thiruvananthapuram was considered as national executive of the party, Nanu stated that it was only a meeting of the leaders opposed to the decision of Gowda to join the NDA.
Meanwhile, Kerala state president Mathew T Thomas kept off the meeting and had also asked the party state office bearers not to attend the meeting.
While Nanu said that an ultimatum would be given to the Kerala unit to attend the plenary, Ibrahim said that if the two MLAs of the party, state president Mathew T Thomas and power minister K Krishnankutty, did not attend the plenary, the party leadership would approach Kerala Chief Minister against them.
The fresh developments seem to be leading to a split in the party in Kerala. While Nanu strongly flayed the decision of the Kerala unit to keep off from the meeting, the party-state leaders are of the view that Nanu and Ibrahim were making hasty moves without proper discussions with other state units.
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