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JD(S) will contest both assembly bypolls, call on LS seat in 3-4 days: Kumaraswamy
Bengaluru Former Karnataka chief minister and leader of the Janata Dal (Secular) H
Bengaluru
Former Karnataka chief minister and leader of the Janata Dal (Secular) H.D Kumaraswamy on Thursday said his party will contest the two assembly bypolls in the state to help rid the regional outfit of being seen as lending support to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). He added that the party will take a decision on contesting the Belagavi Lok Sabha bypoll in next three-four days.
“In both constituencies (Basavakalayan and Maski), no matter what economic promises the Congress and BJP roll out, we will strive to win,” Kumaraswamy told reporters in Bengaluru on Thursday.
The JD(S) announced the name of Syed Yesrab Ali Quadri, a former Congress worker, as its candidate from Basavakalyan. The party is yet to announce a candidate from Maski.
In 2018, the two assembly constituencies were won by the Congress while the BJP won the Belagavi parliamentary seat. The Basavakalyan seat had fallen vacant after the death of B Narayan Rao of the Congress while bypoll to Belagavi seat was necessitated after the death of Union minister Suresh Angadi. Pratapgouda Patil of the Congress won Maski in 2018 but has since defected to the BJP.
Meanwhile, the Congress on Thursday announced Mallamma, the widow of Narayan Rao, as its candidate from Basavakalyan seat. It also announced Basavanagouda Turvihal from Maski. Turvihal had contested the seat on a BJP ticket in 2018 but lost to Pratapgouda Patil by just over 200 votes.
The Congress also announced Ashok Managuli as its candidate for Sindgi, where the date for the bypoll is yet to be announced. Ashok’s father M.C Managuli was a senior JD(S) leader and a former minister.
The JD(S) allied with the BJP in the upper house of the state legislature to instate party veteran Basavaraj Horatti as the chairman of the council.
However, Kumaraswamy, in an earlier interview to HT, said that this alliance is “non-binding”. The Congress has often termed the JD(S) as the “B-Team” of the BJP.
The JD(S) and BJP see Congress as the common enemy and the regional outfit has allied with both parties in the past to remain relevant in the state.
The JD(S) draws its strength from the Old Mysuru region in Karnataka where the dominant Vokkaliga community is its core support base. The JD(S) sees Congress as a threat in these regions and has often struck regional alliances with the BJP to win local, state and national elections.
The Congress and JD(S) parted ways on a bitter note after its decimation in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections where both parties were reduced to just one seat each while the BJP swept 25 out of the total 28 parliamentary constituencies in the state.
Patil was one of the 17 legislators who had defected to the BJP and engineered the collapse of the Kumaraswamy-led coalition government in 2019.
Kumaraswamy said that by winning in these constituencies, mostly in the northern districts of the state, the party will send a strong message across the state.
The JD(S) has also seen some of its workers join the two national parties in recent days. Madhu Bangarappa, a former legislator, joined the Congress last week.
