PTI 
 
Bangalore / New Delhi, Nov 11: Former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda will make the final decision over the Janata Dal (S) future ties with the BJP and with the NDA at the national level, Karnataka Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy has said.

He insisted that the JD (S) remained committed to secularism despite its ties with the saffron party that is leading a high-pitched Hindutva campaign.

"Any electoral alliance will have to be decided by the senior leaders of the party and the BJP. Even the issue of joining the NDA has to be taken by our leaders and the party president (Deve Gowda). He has all along been fighting for secular forces. He has to take a final decision," Kumaraswamy said in an interview to RSS mouthpiece Organizer.

He was asked whether he would be fighting the next assembly elections in alliance with the BJP and that whether his party planned to join the NDA at the national level.

Kumaraswamy, whose party has differences with the BJP over the Sangh Parivar's stand on a controversial shobha yatra proposal and on the controversial Dattapeetha shrine, insisted that the JD (S) had maintained a consistent position on those issues over the past several years.

"We have not changed our consistent stand on these issues over the last several years. We have a responsibility to give protection to all communities and we will do that," the Chief Minister remarked.

Kumaraswamy, who maintained there would be a smooth transfer of power to the allies as part of their rotational power-sharing agreement, said his party would support the BJP in the Chamundeshwari by-poll provided it convinced him of its ability to win the seat.

"If they convince me and our party leaders that they are very strong there and confident of winning the election, then we can support them also. We are not going to make it a prestige issue.

"If they convince us, we are ready to cooperate. But in all previous elections, either the JD (S) or the Congress has won the seat." he remarked.

Kumaraswamy, who called his ties with the Congress a "horrible" experience, said he now was trying to reach up to the expectations of MLAs belonging to both the JD (S) and the BJP.

"The present coalition with the BJP is running smoothly... There are some problems, but overall, there is cooperation between the two parties and we are running smoothly," he remarked.