HDK says no to pre-poll pact with Congress, alliance ends

BENGALURU: With former chief minister H D Kumaraswamy openly ruling out a pre-poll pact with the Congress on Saturday, the alliance has finally ended. The former alliance partners are now set to contest against each other in all 17 Assembly constituencies to fill vacancies caused by the disqualification of 17 MLAs belonging to both parties by then Speaker K R Ramesh Kumar.

The announcement came in response to loud protests against a tie-up with the Congress by party workers when Mr Kumaraswamy addressed a party rally at K R Pet, Mandya district, Saturday, even as he broke down and became emotional.   

Mr Kumaraswamy said stiff resistance from within the party forced him to take a decision to field his party nominees in all these Assembly constituencies.
"I did not feel bad when I quit as Chief Minister after the motion of confidence was defeated because of the absence of these 17 rebels," he said.
    
Lambasting legislator Narayana Gowda, holding him solely responsible for the fall of the coalition government, HDK singled out the disqualified legislator as the latter stepped up his attack against party patriarch H D Deve Gowda and other leaders of JD (S) after turning a rebel.   

Despite intense speculation that the opposite was true, he ruled out the possibility of his son, Nikhil Kumaraswamy, returning to electoral politics during bypolls, the former chief minister said a party worker will be picked for K R Pet Assembly constituency to teach Mr Narayana Gowda a lesson for stabbing party leaders in the back.   

Mr Kumaraswamy accused Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa of targeting officers belonging to Vokkaliga community in the garb of a reshuffle in both the bureaucracy and police department. He was particularly upset about the transfer of B R Ravikanthe Gowda, DIG.  

“I was in politics to serve the poor and the downtrodden. Take it from me, no Yediyurappa or no Siddaramaiah will come to the rescue of the poor like me,” he said.