BENGALURU: The fortunes of those aspiring to contest elections on the JD(S) ticket will rest on booth committees who will attest to their winnability to top bosses.JD(S) supremo H D Deve Gowda on Monday said he would be convening a meeting on Wednesday to meet with all the aspirants and they would be given a chance to show how they can connect with voters and win from their constituencies. Observing their performance would be booth committees led by MLC Ramesh Babu, who would give their report to the core committee. The core committee would then make their recommendations to the father-son duo.
“We have had leaflets prepared about my achievements as Chief Minister and Prime Minister and Kumaraswamy’s achievements as Chief Minister. These leaflets will also bear the image of the aspirant. They have to distribute it to the people. If someone wants a ticket, then they should be able to establish good contact with the voters and they will have a month’s time for this,” he said.
Since the 33 sitting MLAs of JD(S) are already guaranteed tickets, the tickets for the remaining 191 constituencies are up for grabs. Deve Gowda said the final list of candidates would be released by the end of December. He warned all party members that they could not take it easy with preparations for the polls.Deve Gowda has been taking the lead on party affairs after H D Kumaraswamy underwent a valve replacement surgery. Kumaraswamy has been advised bed rest till end of October.
Gowda denied any chance of an alliance with Congress or BJP saying they would not only contest all the 224 seats in the Assembly elections, but also the 28 Lok Sabha seats in the Parliamentary elections.
City development top priority
Deve Gowda said that if their party came to power, then they would invest in comprehensive development of Bengaluru and he would direct Kumaraswamy to go on weekly inspections to inquire about problems along the lines of grama vastavya. He also dismissed Siddaramaiah’s promise to give 70 per cent reservation to SC/ST and backward classes, saying that the CM did not know what he was talking about.