Karnataka   

JD(S) begins poll preparations

BANGALORE: The Janata Dal (Secular) on Friday began preparations for the Legislative Assembly elections with the party president and former Prime Minister, H.D. Deve Gowda, urging all party men to work for the success at the elections and holding out an assurance that the party ticket would be given to members of all communities.

A marathon meeting of State office-bearers, district presidents, former ministers and legislators and district leaders was held here on Friday to chalk out the party’s strategy for the elections.

In the absence of the former Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy, part’s State unit president N. Merajuddin Patel and Mr. Deve Gowda took the lead in the programme.

Mr. Deve Gowda said the Janata Dal (Secular) would stick to its secular credentials and it would call upon the electorate to prevent Karnataka from going the Gujarat way.

Neither should Karnataka go the way of Gujarat nor should the country be converted into another Gujarat and this would form the backbone of the party’s election strategy.

“I am confident that a large section of the people here will agree with me and the party and extend support to the party much more than what was given in the 2004 Assembly elections”. With reference to alliance with secular parties, the former Prime Minister said soon after the indecisive mandate in the 2004 elections, he had himself spoken to Congress President Sonia Gandhi following the good relationship that he enjoyed with the late Rajiv Gandhi.

“Unfortunately, some State Congress leaders worked against the alliance and succeeded in their game plan. The Janata Dal (Secular) was compelled to go with the BJP recently only after the same set of Congressmen attempted to woo M.P. Prakash and split the Janata Dal (S).”

Much to the cheers of the gathering, Mr. Deve Gowda announced the campaign schedule of the party and said the former Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy would lead the election campaign from February 20.

The national executive committee of the party would meet here on February 19 after which a massive convention of the party would be held here during which Mr. Kumaraswamy would launch the campaign.

Prior to this exercise, Mr. Deve Gowda along with the other senior leaders, including Mr. Merajuddin Patel and the senior vice-president D. Manjunath would undertake an extensive tour of all the 28 districts.

The tour would begin from Mulbagal in Kolar district on January 18 and cover the districts of Bangalore, Bidar, Gulbarga, Raichur, Bellary and Bangalore City (January 25). The second phase of the tour programme would begin on January 27 in Uttara Kannada district and would conclude on February 14.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

JD(S) begins poll preparations
Concern over increasing number of road accidents
Land recovery issue will be studied: Kamat
Ellu Amavasye Jatre draws to a close
‘Goa needs people’s economic zones’
Farmers’s arrears put power utilities in a spot
Fear grips taxi drivers Law & order
Leading the way

Copyright © 2008, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu