Cong, JD(S) won't ally for RR Nagar poll

Barely hours after the JD(S)-Congress coalition government passed the floor test in the Legislative Assembly on Friday, the two parties collided head-on with regard to the Rajarajeshwari Assembly poll scheduled for May 28.

Though Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy had earlier said the JD(S) and the Congress would fight all elections from hereon together, the parties failed to arrive at a consensus when it came to RR Nagar. They will now fight the election separately. The JD(S), which had agreed to support the Congress candidate in Jayanagar (poll on January 11), wanted the Congress to support its candidate, G H Ramachandra, in RR Nagar.

The Congress, whose sitting MLA Munirathna is seeking re-election, refused to accept the JD(S) offer.

JD(S) supremo H D Deve Gowda, who held a meeting with the party’s RR Nagar leaders in the evening, later told reporters the two parties had failed to arrive at a consensus. “The election to this constituency was deferred because of one person (Munirathna). I don’t want to say much about him. We had filed a complaint against him before the Election Commission. I don’t know if the commission will take any action,” he said.

Gowda, however, said the setback in RR Nagar would not dent the coalition at the state level.