The former Prime Minister and Janata Dal (Secular) president, H.D. Deve Gowda, on Wednesday said he would seek the support of the Congress for his party candidate in the Rajya Sabha biennial elections from Karnataka.
“We had lent support to Congress candidates twice earlier. We will now make a claim on the party to support our candidate in the coming elections,” he told journalists here.
Four Rajya Sabha members from Karnataka are retiring in June-end — M. Venkaiah Naidu of the BJP, Oscar Fernandes and B.K. Hari Prasad of the Congress, and M.A.M. Ramaswamy of the JD(S).
While the BJP had enough members in the Assembly to fill the two vacancies without any problem, the Congress would be able to do so for one seat. This would leave one seat open for contest. The JD(S) would stake claim for that.
Mr. Gowda said he would field party secretary-general Kunwar Danish Ali for the seat. “I will try my best to get Mr. Ali elected.”
He said his party would organise a rally in Bangalore on April 27 as per the decision of the 13-party grouping to hold nation-wide protests against price rise. It would support the grouping's decision to press for an amendment to the Finance Bill to roll back the hike in the prices of petroleum products and fertilizers.
At the rally, the party would also raise the various problems faced by the people of Karnataka under the BJP government, including frequent power cuts.
