BENGALURU: JD(S) supremo H D Deve Gowda said on Saturday that he is ready to speak to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on the issue of alliance with the party.
Speaking to newspersons before addressing a meeting of party candidates who were defeated in the recent BBMP elections, he reiterated, “JD(S) has not set any conditions for forging an alliance with the Congress”.
Maintaining that he was not averse to speaking to Siddaramaiah, a friend-turned-political foe, he said, “I am ready to speak to the Chief Minister on the issue.”
Referring to his meeting with KPCC president G Parameshwara, Gowda said, “After giving my consent to the proposal of alliance, I had advised the KPCC president to meet the state JD(S) president H D Kumaraswamy to finalise it.”
Refusing to react on the Assembly Speaker Kagodu Thimmappa’s comment that the Congress had erred in forging an alliance, he said, “I will reply to it at an appropriate time.”
Later, addressing the party’s defeated candidates, Gowda complimented them for fighting the civic body polls against all odds.
“I am proud of you that despite resource crunch, you fought against two powerful political parties and held the party’s flag high,” he said. He also said he will devote all of his time to rebuilding the party’s base in the city.
In a related development, the Congress MLAs, MLCs and ministers representing the city, held a meeting at the party office on Saturday to chalk out strategies to ensure the victory of the party’s candidate in the September 11 mayoral elections.
Among other things, a decision was taken to shift the party’s newly elected 76 corporators to a safe place. “The corporators are expected to be taken to a resort and kept there till the day of mayoral elections,” sources said.