Mysuru:  Asserting that his party will come to power on its own in the Assembly polls, JD(S) Supremo and former PM H.D. Deve Gowda has said that the JD(S) will take the support of Independent candidates, who are likely to win over a dozen seats, if the party falls just short of the majority mark. Addressing a press meet at a private hotel here this morning, Deve Gowda maintained that the outcome of Karnataka Assembly polls will be a pointer to the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

Maintaining that the JD(S) would bag almost all the eleven Assembly segments in the district apart from Varuna and K.R. constituencies, where the party does not have a strong base, he said that the JD(S) was getting stronger even in Munbai-Karnataka and Hyderabad-Karnataka regions where the party is considered weak, even as the poll date was drawing closer.

Dismissing pre-poll surveys which predicted around 40 seats for the JD(S), the JD(S) Supremo said that such pre-poll surveys were funded by political parties only to buy public opinion in their favour.

Lashing out at the Congress for making tall claims and false premises, Gowda said the Congress was now concentrating more in North Karnataka as it feared that the JD(S) was making deep inroads into its bastion.

JD(S) Chmaraja candidate Prof. K.S. Rangappa, Kerala JD(S) President Krishnan Kutty, City JD(S) President K.T. Cheluvegowda, leader Rajanna and others were present.