No truck with Congress in assembly poll, says Deve Gowda

MANGALURU: The JD(S) would have no electoral understanding with the ruling Congress in the coming Karnataka assembly election as it had "burnt its fingers" in the past aligning with the national party, former Prime Minister and party president H D Deve Gowda said today.

The Janata Dal (Secular) had "burnt its fingers" in the past aligning with the Congress, he told reporters here, adding that his party was also not interested in forming a government with the Congress's support if the results threw up such a probability.

The Congress and the BJP were "only discussing communal issues" and were turning a blind eye to people's issues, including the problems being faced by farmers, he said.


Gowda said the JD-S would contest in all the 224 assembly seats in the state, of which some seats would be spared for the Left parties.

The party had not yet decided whether to seek the support of the Social Democratic Party of India, which had backed it in the last elections.

On the controversial statements made by Union minister Ananth Kumar Hegde on the Constitution and Dalits, Gowda said Prime Minister Narendra Modi should control his ministers.

He said the JD-S had submitted a complaint to the assembly Speaker to disqualify two of its MLAs, who had defected and joined the BJP recently.