The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Gear up for elections, says Deve Gowda

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Wednesday, Feb 27, 2008
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Gear up for elections, says Deve Gowda

S. Rajendran

‘Assembly polls will be held well before May 28’

‘I am confident we will do much better than expectations’

— Photo: V. Sreenivasa Murthy

Party meet: Party workers from different districts attended the Janata Dal (S) meeting in Bangalore on Tuesday.

Bangalore: The Janata Dal (Secular) leadership on Tuesday called upon the party to gear up for elections straightway in the light of reports that the Election Commission is expected to announce the election schedule shortly.

Senior leaders of the JD(S) from all the districts attended a meeting here to discuss the delimitation of Assembly constituencies and its fall out.

Booklet

A handy booklet on delimitation and its repercussions on the constituencies, including the new jurisdiction of each constituency written by the party spokesman and MLC Y.S.V. Datta, was released on the occasion.

‘Start work’

The former Prime Minister and national President of the JD(S) H.D. Deve Gowda, who was in New Delhi on Monday to attend the joint session of Parliament, told party leaders that the Assembly elections in the State would be held well before the May 28 deadline. Hence, it was imperative for party leaders to get back to their respective constituencies and commence work.

“Differences among the leaders, if any, should take a backseat and all of us should work together. It should be remembered that we are fighting against two national parties — the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party”.

Mr. Deve Gowda said the administration of the State under the President’s rule was bad and the Governorwas spending more time in the transfer of officials, including village accountants leave alone the Secretaries to Government and the Chief Secretary.

The former Prime Minister took a sarcastic dig at the Bharatiya Janata Party and said that the party was now talking of waiver of farm loans. It is for BJP leader L.K. Advani to introspect. “I raised this matter on the floor of the Lok Sabha in 1998 and staged a dharna and none of them extended support,” said Mr. Deve Gowda

Survival issue

The former Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy exhorted the party to stay united and said: “This is a testing time for the JD(S). We have to do well in the elections for the survival of the party and I am confident we will do much better than expectations. For four years now, rival parties have attempted to wipe out the influence of the JD(S) and have failed following the strength of the workers,” he said.

Mr. Kumaraswamy said he would like to ask the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee President M. Mallikarjun Kharge and the BJP leaders like B.S. Yeddyurappa and Anantha Kumar on the contribution of their respective parties in sorting out the various issues confronting the State for long.

Former Minister M.C. Nanaiah, who joined the JD(S) recently, exuded confidence that the party would do well in the elections and said that it would go before the people under the leadership of Mr. Kumaraswamy.

The others who spoke included State President N. Merajuddin Patel, former MLA M.U. Madappa and JD(S) State Working President C. Narayanaswamy.

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