Gowda to MLAs: Prepare to go alone for Karnataka Assembly polls

Bengaluru: Realising that the JD(S)-Congress coalition has become shaky after the exit of the H.D. Kumaraswamy government on Tuesday, JD(S) supremo H.D. Deve Gowda has instructed his MLAs to prepare to go for it alone in the Assembly bypolls, which would be necessitated if the resignations of the rebel MLAs are accepted.

Talking to party MLAs at the JD(S) office, Mr Gowda said, “We do not know what the thinking in the Congress party is now. If they do not want the coalition to continue, we should be prepared for such an eventuality and fight the byelections on our own,” he said.

Mr Gowda also gave the legislators a pep talk on the need to build the party from the grassroots. “After losing the Tumakuru LS polls, I did not lose heart and pushed myself to work harder,” he said. He thanked the MLAs for standing by their leader (Mr Kumaraswamy) and criticized the BJP for bringing down a democratically elected government. Meanwhile, a day after the coalition government headed by him collapsed, outgoing Karnataka chief minister H.D. Kumaraswamy on Wednesday remained non-committal on the future of his party JDS’ alliance with the Congress, saying both parties have not yet discussed it.

The 14-month old Congress-JDS coalition government headed by Mr Kumaraswamy resigned on Tuesday, losing the vote of confidence in the Assembly after a three-week long bitter jockeying for power. “Today we have called our MLAs to work out future strategies. Our top priority is to develop our party,” Mr Kumaraswamy said.

Responding to a question on continuing alliance with the Congress, he said, “Let us see...I don’t know. I don’t know about the stand of Congress leaders for the future... We have not discussed anything yet.”

JD(S) supremo H D Deve Gowda and Mr Kumaraswamy, who is the JDS legislature party leader and party state unit chief, are part of the meeting with party legislators.