Bengaluru: To contest or not to contest seems to be the dilemma of the Janata Dal (S). Although its state party chief, H D Kumaraswamy tweeted soon after the Election Commission announced the dates of the Gundlupet and Nanjanagud bypolls that the party would field candidates in both constituencies, a final decision could still be a couple of days away, according to sources.
JDS supremo, H D Deve Gowda and Mr Kumaraswamy are likely to do some brainstorming on the issue before taking a final call on contesting the bypolls, they reveal.
With only a year to for the 2018 polls, the party believes the by-elections could merely be a drain on its resources when the Gundlupet constituency is still firmly in the grip of the family of the late Minister, Mahadeva Prasad and both the Congress and BJP are likely to pull out all stops to win from Nanjangud owing to the feud between veteran leader, Srinivasprasad and CM Siddaramaiah.
Mr Kumaraswamy also apparently agrees with Mr Siddaramaiah's contention that the bypolls are not an indicator of a party's popularity. He is reportedly going by the past when the Congress won two by-elections in 2014 but went on to win merely 65 seats in the state assembly poll that followed six months later and the experience of the AIADMK, which never contested a bypoll when out of power, but often swept the assembly elections in Tamil Nadu.
The party is likely to thrash out the issue threadbare before taking a final call over the weekend as it continues to enjoy substantial backing in Nanjangud despite the desertion of its MLA from the constituency, Kalale Keshavamurthy, who joined the Congress recently, say sources.
