The Hindu : Janata Dal (U) in talks with BJP on seats

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Mar 16, 2004

Karnataka

Karnataka

Janata Dal (U) in talks with BJP on seats

By Our Special Correspondent

BANGALORE, MARCH 15. The President of the Janata Dal (U) State unit, B. Somashekar, has said that his party is likely to finalise seat adjustments with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday.

Addressing presspersons here today, Mr. Somashekar said the Janata Dal (U) President, George Fernandes, was holding talks with the Prime Minister, A.B. Vajpayee, and the BJP national President, M. Venkaiah Naidu, in New Delhi in this regard. The Janata Dal (U) had decided to have an electoral alliance with the BJP to bring the National Democratic Alliance Government back to power at the Centre and remove the "corrupt" Congress Government in the State. "Alliance is inevitable for both the parties and there are indications of finalising it tomorrow," he said.

The State unit of the Rashtriya Lok Dal had merged with the Janata Dal (U), Mr. Somashekar said. All the office-bearers of the State unit of the Rashtriya Lok Dal had joined the Janata Dal (U) in order to defeat the Congress party in the coming Assembly elections. The former Union Minister, Ajit Singh, was heading the Rashtriya Lok Dal, Mr. Somashekar said.

He said the Dalit Panthers Samithi had decided to have an electoral alliance with the Janata Dal (U) in the State. The samithi had over 50,000 members. They had decided to support the Janata Dal (U) in Tamil Nadu also, he said. The Janata Dal (U) U) would contest 10 Lok Sabha seats. To strengthen the party organisation and garner votes for the party, Mr. Fernandes would tour 10 Lok Sabha constituencies from March 22 in two phases. He would visit Chikkaballapur, Chitradurga, Chamarajanagar, Malavalli and Haveri. The party would take out a huge rally on March 27 in Bangalore, he said.

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