JD(S) plans to take in seven-time MLA Roshan Baig

After trying to recruit former BJP minister Ramesh Jarkiholi, the H D Deve Gowda-led JD(S) has cleared the decks to induct seven-time former MLA Roshan Baig.

“We have no objections to bringing Baig on board,” JD(S) legislature party leader H D Kumaraswamy told DH, suggesting that discussions to bring the former minister into the party fold might have taken place with the party’s national president H D Deve Gowda.

Kumaraswamy said, “We have decided to field at least 12 Muslim candidates in constituencies where the minorities are dominant. Shivajinagar is one of them,” he said. In the 2018 election, the JD(S) candidate polled just 1.21% of votes.

The plan to rope in Baig is a part of the regional party’s search for winnable candidates and an attempt to regain minority Muslim votes that it considerably lost during the 2018 Assembly election with the Congress projecting it as the BJP’s ‘B’ team. The JD(S) already has C M Ibrahim as its state president.

Baig, a political pariah dumped by the Congress and stonewalled by the BJP, might have a chance at resurrection as the JD(S) candidate in the Shivajinagar assembly segment.

However, Baig is yet to decide on his next move. “The JD(S) might be keen on taking me, but I have not decided anything about it,” he told DH.

Baig made his electoral debut in 1985 as a candidate of the erstwhile undivided Janata Dal. In 1999, when the Janata Dal split into two, Baig joined the Congress.

Baig, however, fell out of favour with the Congress ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. He was suspended for publicly criticising Congress leaders. Later, Baig was disqualified along with 16 other MLAs under the anti-defection law. In 2020, the CBI arrested Baig in connection with the multi-crore IMA scam.

Recently, the JD(S) tried to poach ‘sulking’ BJP MLA Ramesh Jarkiholi. The Gokak MLA declined the offer and is said to have told Kumaraswamy: “Let’s work in our respective parties to defeat the Congress.”

Meanwhile, Kumaraswamy said he was unaware about rumours of Chamarajpet Congress MLA B Z Zameer Ahmed Khan looking to return to the JD(S) fold. This rumour thickened after Zameer met Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao with whom the JD(S) has announced a pre-poll truck.

“I don’t know about Zameer Ahmed Khan’s interest to join the JD(S). He has not approached me. I don’t know if he approached the higher-ups,” Kumaraswamy said.