JOIN USJD(S) won't, but party leaders will support candidates
The JD(S) as a political entity has decided to stay away from lending support to the protests by the aggrieved candidates who were selected in the 2011 KPSC examinations.
However, as individuals, a few senior JD(S) leaders have decided to join the aspirants in their ‘fight for justice.’
On Thursday night, JD(S) party leaders had an informal meeting with their leader H D Kumaraswamy and dissuaded him from lending official support to the aggrieved candidates. It is said the leaders asked Kumaraswamy to not to give it a political colour as it involved the lives of innocent aspirants and a large contingent of ‘Ahinda’ candidates.
Kumaraswamy’s scheduled press conference on the issue was called off at the last minute on Friday morning. The senior leaders are said to have told Kumaraswamy to allow the backward classes political groups and associations to take the lead, while he and the other JD(S) leaders will give moral and financial support to the struggle.
JD(S) leader and former minister M C Nanaiah on Friday said Kumaraswamy’s decision to support aggrieved candidates was his (Kumaraswamy’s) own and not the stand of the party. “The party is yet to take a decision,” Nanaiah said.
Senior leader and MLC Basavaraj Horatti said: “We agree that there may be certain aspirants who paid bribe to get selected. But what about the innocent aspirants who are caught in this crossfire?”
Nanaiah added that he would place his views on the KPSC issue before the party once a formal meeting is convened. Meanwhile, another section of the party believes that once Kumaraswamy and H D Deve Gowda decide to support the agitating KPSC aspirants, de facto the party is involved. Accordingly, JD(S) MLAs and MLCs may take part in the protests en mass.