Deve Gowda likely to press Cong for K’taka poll tieup

Bengaluru: A bitter war of words between his son H.D. Kumaraswamy and Congress legislature party (CLP) leader Siddaramaiah notwithstanding, JD(S) patriarch H.D. Deve Gowda seems keen to forge a tacit understanding with the Congress for forthcoming bypolls to fill 15 vacancies in the Legislative Assembly as part of his strategy to defeat the ruling BJP.

Mr Gowda, who arrived in New Delhi on Wednesday morning, is likely to reach out to senior Congress leaders for a pre-poll adjustment between the two parties. The JD(S) is likely to field candidates in five constituencies, and offer a friendly fight in the remaining 10 seats in north Karnataka to the Congress. Such an arrangement would help the erstwhile coalition partners defeat disqualified legislators, who are likely to be fielded by the ruling party, and unseat chief minister B.S. Yediyurappa.

According to sources, Mr Gowda has maintained that his party would contest these bypolls on its own rather than repeat the unsuccessful experiment of contesting Lok Sabha polls as a coalition partner of Congress.

Mr Gowda’s move comes a day after Mr Kumaraswamy and Mr Siddaramaiah were locked in an online battle with the JD(S) leader blaming the latter for the collapse of the coalition government. Mr Siddaramaiah retorted saying the former chief minister had resorted to drama ahead of the bypolls scheduled for October 21.

Sources in Congress said Mr Siddaramiah and his camp followers are determined to stop party leaders in Delhi from forging an alliance with JD(S).