While the resurgent Congress in Karnataka is in the process of identifying candidates for the two Lok Sabha byelections next month, Opposition parties JD(S), BJP and KJP are mulling a ‘unified opposition’ candidate to check splitting of anti-Congress votes.
An informal discussion among the three outfits has taken place and the results are ‘encouraging,’ a senior BJP leader told reporters informally on Tuesday.
Opposition Leader in Assembly H D Kumaraswamy said: “It is still in a nascent stage. But there is a positive response for the proposal to teach a bitter lesson to the Congress.”
Pointing out that the Congress in the May 5 Assembly elections had secured only 34 per cent of popular vote share, he said: “Most people voted against the party in the last Assembly elections. There is nothing wrong in mobilising the majority vote share against them.”
The former CM, whose party represented both the constituencies Mandya and Bangalore Rural, dropped hints that they may focus on fielding a candidate in just one.
Maintaining that there is no wrong in mobilising the majority vote share of over 64 per cent against the Congress, he did not rule out the possibilities of his party fielding one candidate in one of the two Lok Sabha seats.
While hinting that the JD(S) may back out to field its candidate in one of the two Lok Sabha seats, Kumaraswamy however did not specify whether it is Mandya or Bangalore Rural.
Meanwhile, senior BJP leader Ramachandra Gowda, who met the JD(S) leader, reportedly conveyed the BJP’s response to face the Congress unitedly in the two Lok Sabha seats. The issue also reportedly came up for discussion in Monday’s BJP’s state core committee meeting and majority of the members did not oppose the idea to work out strategies to defeat the Congress in both the seats by presenting an opposition parties’ united fight to the Congress.