Janata Dal (Secular) patriarch H.D. Deve Gowda has said that he would campaign for the Congress candidates in the bypolls to the Assembly and Lok Sabha seats. The Congress is fielding candidates in Ballari and Jamkhandi, while a decision on Shivamogga is yet to be reached.
Confident of both Congress and JD(S) workers at the grassroots of working together in bypolls, Mr. Gowda said, “I have asked Siddaramaiah to fix the date and programme. I will appeal to the people to support coalition candidates in the larger interests of the country.”
On the resignation of lone Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) Minister N. Mahesh from the Cabinet, he said he saw no threat to the coalition government in Karnataka because of this. He described the development as a “cascading effect” of BSP’s move of not aligning with Congress.
“His resignation has nothing to do with the coalition arrangement in Karnataka. BSP supremo Mayawati might have asked him to quit the Cabinet on a moral issue,” Mr. Gowda told The Hindu. “However, his resignation was a surprise to me.”
On the discontentment within the party, as well as in the Congress over the decision to field JD(S) candidate from Ramanagaram and Mandya, Mr. Gowda admitted that some people in both the parties were “making noises”.
“The differences between Congress and JD(S) workers at the local level cannot be sorted out in a hurry. The issue of seat sharing in the Lok Sabha polls will crop up after December. By that time, reality will sink in for the workers and leaders of both the parties and they will fight the coming LS polls together,” said Mr. Gowda.