H.D. Deve Gowda, national president, Janata Dal (Secular), kick-started the preparations for the Lok Sabha elections in Shivamogga parliamentary seat on Sunday by holding meetings with party workers and Congress leaders.
At a hotel in the city, Mr. Gowda held discussions with Congress leaders including Kagodu Thimmappa, former Minister, and R. Prasanna Kumar, MLC. The issue of maintaining coordination between both parties during campaigning was discussed. Mr. Gowda also sought suggestions from Mr. Thimmappa on improving the performance of JD(S) in Shivamogga and Shikaripur taluks that are known to be strong bastions of the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Addressing a meeting of the JD(S) workers in the city later, Mr. Gowda called upon the workers to seek votes through door-to-door visits.
Speaking on the occasion, Madhu Bangarappa, JD(S) candidate for the Lok Sabha election for Shivamogga parliamentary seat, said both Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy and Minister for Water Resources D.K. Shivakumar have assured of campaigning for him. Mr. Bangarappa said that he had conducted meetings with leaders of JD(S) and Congress from all 2,021 polling stations in Shivamogga parliamentary seat and took information from them on the reasons that resulted in his defeat during the recently held byelection.
He said the JD(S) would seek votes by highlighting the funds sanctioned by the coalition government in the State for implementation of lift irrigation projects in the district.