Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru (SP)

Bengaluru, Sep 17: JD(S) national president H D Deve Gowda, announced the decision of his party to snap its ties with the Congress. It may be recalled that he had blamed his former colleague and follower, Siddaramaiah, and fissures within the Congress as being responsible for the debacle of the 15-month-old coalition government.

"In coalition arrangement, H D Kumaraswamy functioned really well as chief minister. But Congress did not back him. Henceforth we will not repeat this mistake. From now on, our party will face all the elections on its own," Deve Gowda declared. This has effectively ended the friendship between the two parties which had come together with the sole purpose of putting the rival BJP on the mat. It also has paved way for three-cornered contest in the state politics in place of the dual.

H D Deve Gowda

The two parties had faced Lok Sabha election through mutual arrangement but this experiment had failed miserably. After this bitter experiment, the JD(S) leaders who felt that Nikhil Kumaraswamy and Mandya and H D Deve Gowda at Tumakuru were defeated by Congress forces with the tacit support of Siddaramaiah, had spewed venom at him.

With this declaration, a three-cornered contest will be witnessed in 17 assembly constituencies which are likely to face bypoll on account of disqualification of 17 legislators unless the Supreme Court stays it.

Deve Gowda also said that he is not bothered by people leaving his party and said that everyone is open to go away if he or she so wishes. He said that his party is thriving because of workers and not leaders, and that he knows well how to build the party to a position of eminence.