Karnataka coalition signals formation of anti-BJP front: Moily

The swearing-in of JD(S) leader H D Kumaraswamy as Karnataka Chief Minister tomorrow would signal the formation of a "secular" and anti-BJP front in the country, Senior Congress leader M Veerappa Moily said on Tuesday.

The former Union Minister said the expected presence of a galaxy of opposition leaders at the oath-taking ceremony in Bengaluru is "really a forerunner meeting" towards building such a front. "All opposition, many of whom have not joined together at any time earlier....first time they are joining together... it signals the formation of anti-BJP, and positively for the secular front in the country," the former Karnataka Chief Minister told PTI.

According to him, the coming together of the Congress and JD(S) in Karnataka is a "landmark" and a "good beginning" towards consolidation of political forces against the BJP. "This is the beginning of the decline of the graph of NDA, more particularly Prime Minister Narendra Modi", Moily claimed.

"This is the emergence of an era of consolidation, the era of secularism". He said in the recent Assembly elections in Gujarat, as well as the just-concluded one in Karnataka, there was a total absence of Modi wave. "If Modi wave was there in Karnataka, this could not have been the figure (election results).

The very fact that the BJP scored the same percentage of votes as in 2008, even when Modi was not present, goes to show that Modi wave did not matter. There is no relevance", Moily said. "In any election to come in other States, it will be fought on the level-playing ground and without Modi wave," he said.

On whether the Congress is ready to play second fiddle in States where it's not strong in next year's Lok Sabha polls, Moily said what is important is Modi and BJP "should go in 2019 and democratic and secular forces should emerge." As for several Prime Ministerial aspirants among the anti-BJP parties, he said everything, including PM candidate, will "evolve" and there is no difficulty at all.

"This kind of emerging wave against the BJP, for the evolution of democratic and secular forces, cannot be stopped at all by any forces," Moily claimed. He also hit back at the BJP for terming the JDS-Congress coalition as an "unholy alliance."

"They had also joined hands with JDS (in the past), was it unholy? They had 24 political parties (in NDA) when (Atal Behari) Vajpayee was Prime Minister, was it unholy? it's (like) devil quoting scripture," Moily added.