THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Party factions in various states including Kerala participated in the protest against Janata Dal-S national president Deva Gouda's alliance with the BJP. A move to form a new national leadership excluding Deva Gouda is under consideration. For this purpose, it is proposed to conduct the party's national convention by December.

The party's Kerala leadership has reached out to factions including Karnataka, which are opposed to the BJP alliance. The first attempt is to coordinate the party leaderships of like-minded states like Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Maharashtra, Bihar, UP, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana and move ahead by maintaining the identity of the party at the national level. Whether to form a new party or merge with any other national party can be decided later.

The leaders said that it is not possible to continue with Deva Gowda as the national president. In the JDS state leadership meeting held on 7th of this month, there were different opinions among the leaders regarding the future position, but there was a consensus that there was no alliance with the BJP. Minister K. Krishnan Kutty and party state president Mathew T. Thomas MLA has also convinced the CPM leadership and Deve Gowda.

National leaders from Kerala such as Dr. A. Nilalohitha Das, CK Nanu, Jose Thettayil etc. were entrusted with the national level coordination. The JDS plenary session held in October 2022 decided on a non-BJP-Congress national alliance. Beyond that, the leaders point out that Deve Gowda and his son Kumaraswamy tied up with the BJP either in the national component or in the Karnataka component without discussing it.

With the LJD in Kerala merging with the Lalu Prasad Yadav-led RJD in Bihar, the JDS-LJD merger was almost a closed chapter. LJD State President M.V. Shreyams Kumar was elected as RJD state president. If the merger is attempted, there may be a demand for Shreyams Kumar to be the state president. It may not be acceptable to JDS. In this context, it is learned that the CPM has given a little more time to the JDS to take a decision on the future.