Mysuru: The local Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) and Congress units held a joint press conference in city this morning to present a united face to its opposition and appealed to its warring workers to set aside their differences, piled up over decades of fierce fighting and work with each other for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.
The two parties are scrambling to pacify its disgruntled workers who have publicly come out to express their unwillingness to work with each other, highlighting the disconnect between State-level leadership and ground realities.
Under compulsion to put up a united front in the face of skirmishes between party workers at the ground-level, leaders of alliance partners came together to make it clear that they will not only fight the Parliamentary elections as allies but will also campaign jointly for all seats.
Their joint campaign for Mysuru-Kodagu and Mandya Lok Sabha constituencies will begin on Apr.9 with JD(S) Supremo and former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda and Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader Siddharamaiah addressing rallies on the same day.
Congress President Rahul Gandhi is scheduled to visit Mysuru and K.R. Nagar on Apr.13 and this, according to coalition partners, will provide a boost to the party prospects.
In a clear message to workers at the joint press conference, leaders said all differences need to be set aside to ensure the defeat of the BJP in Karnataka. This is the first time the two parties have made an effort locally to present a picture of unity. Both Congress and JD(S) insiders said that the press conference was the result of high commands insisting on a symbolic show of unity amid trouble over seat-sharing.
Those present at the press conference were JD(S) State President and Hunsur MLA A.H. Vishwanath, Mysuru District Minister and Chamundeshwari MLA G.T. Devegowda, Kodagu District Minister and K.R. Nagar MLA S.R. Mahesh, Narasimharaja MLA Tanveer Sait, Varuna MLA Dr. Yathindra Siddharamaiah, Periyapatna MLA K. Mahadev, T. Narasipur MLA Ashwin Kumar, H.D. Kote MLA Anil Chikkamadu, MLCs Marithibbegowda and R. Dharmasena, Mysuru-Kodagu Lok Sabha seat coalition candidate C.H. Vijayashankar, Chamarajanagar Coalition candidate and sitting MP R. Dhruvanarayan, City Congress President R. Murthy, District President Dr. B.J. Vijayakumar, KPCC Women’s Wing President and AICCI member Dr. Pushpa Amarnath, former Minister Dr. H.C. Mahadevappa, City JD(S) President K.T. Cheluvegowda and others.
“Whatever differences exist, they must be overlooked with the single intention of defeating the BJP. Everybody must work together. There are some small issues but it is not impossible to solve them. Deve Gowda and Siddharamaiah are capable of handling them,” A.H. Vishwanath said. The press conference was an attempt to tell the workers as well as the public that both parties were working together to solve the problems.
Addressing the media, G.T. Devegowda said that both parties will put up a united front even in contentious seats like Mysuru-Kodagu and Mandya where ground-level leaders are up in arms against the State coalition.
This post was published on April 7, 2019 8:00 pm