Cong MP files papers from seat alloted to Gowda
BENGALURU: Janata Dal (Secular) president and former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda filed his nomination from Tumkur as the ruling alliance candidate in Karnataka, but might have to face a rebel candidate from alliance partner Congress.
Defying the pre-poll alliance between coalition partners, under which Tumkur was allotted to JD (S), sitting Congress MP SP Muddahanumegowda filed his papers. “I’m not filing the nomination for fun, I am an MP from Tumkur and I’m contesting,” he said. Muddahanumegowda said he still has faith about getting a ticket from his party.
Gowda who submitted his papers at the Deputy Commissioner’s office in Tumkur in the presence of deputy CM G Parameshwara of Congress called on workers of both parties to fight the “communal BJP” together, and asked them to forget their past rift. “We have united now and formed the coalition government in Karnataka. Let’s face this election also together,” he said.
The JD (S), which will contest eight out of the 28 Lok Sabha seats, based on a pre-poll alliance, conceded Bangalore North seat to the Congress. Late on Monday, the Congress named state rural development minister Krishna Byregowda as the candidate from the seat.
A senior Congress leader who is a minister in the coalition government and did not wish to be named attributed this to a dearth of candidates in the JD (S).
For instance, Congress leader Pramod Madhwaraj is the JD (S) candidate in the Udupi-Chickamagaluru constituency.
“At best we would have expected that the JD (S) would be given six seats based on its strength,” he said. “We didn’t think one of our seats would be given up,” the minister said.
JD (S) state president AH Vishwanath termed his party’s decision to give up the Bengaluru North seat as “compensation” to the Congress. “Congress has to put its house in order in Tumkur. We didn’t ask them to give it up. It was the Congress that asked us to give up Mysore and offered us Tumkur instead,” he said.
If Muddahanumegowda contests from Tumkur as a rebel candidate, it will add to the Congress-JD(S) coalition worries as the alliance is facing backlash at several places, including Mandya and Hassan, where party workers are unhappy with the seat arrangements.
On Sunday, Kumaraswamy had slammed Muddahanumegowda for “unnecessarily” creating disturbance in the coalition.
KN Rajanna, another Congress leader and former MLA, has also filed his nomination from Tumkur as an Independent.