Pramod Madhwaraj, Congress leader and former Minister, said on Monday that the Janata Dal (Secular) had approached him on fighting the Lok Sabha election as a coalition candidate from Udupi–Chikkamagaluru seat.
Mr. Madhwaraj told The Hindu that he met Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy in Bengaluru two days ago, when the latter put up the proposal of his fighting as the Congress–JD(S) coalition candidate for Udupi–Chikkamagaluru. On Sunday, he had a telephonic conversation with the former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda and Mr. Kumaraswamy on this issue.
“I told them the proposal would require clearance from JD(S) workers and also from Congress leaders. If both the parties agree, I don’t mind contesting,” he said.
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Mr. Madhwaraj said he would meet senior Congress leaders on Tuesday on this issue. “I want to seek the permission of my party to accept the proposal. The candidate will be a Congressman, the symbol will be of the JD(S). I will be the coalition candidate in its purest sense,” he said.
Asked why the JD(S) was interested in him and not other contenders from both the Congress and the JD(S), Mr. Madhwaraj said the JD(S) was a political party and would have its own collected feedback.
“If my candidature gets the nod of the two parties, there would be a joint campaign by the both Congress and JD(S),” he said.
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When it was pointed out that another aspirant, Arathi Krishna, former Deputy Chairperson of State NRI Cell, was closer to Mr. Gowda’s family, Mr. Madhwaraj said that proximity did not count in political decisions.
Asked about the reason for his optimism on winning the Udupi–Chikkamagaluru seat, especially when the Congress had a poor showing in the coastal belt in the 2018 Assembly elections and Mr. Madhwaraj himself had lost from Udupi Assembly constituency, Mr. Madhwaraj said, “Anything can happen in an election.”
Shobha Karandlaje from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had won the Udupi–Chikkamagaluru seat in 2014 elections by a margin of 1.81 lakh votes by defeating the then Congress candidate, K. Jayaprakash Hegde.
Mr. Hegde has since joined the BJP and is an aspirant for the seat from the BJP along with Ms. Karandlaje.