Former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda said here on Sunday that like-minded political parties committed to secularism would prevent the Bharatiya Janata Party from turning Karnataka into its gateway for the South in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
Speaking to presspersons here, Mr. Gowda said that the very objective behind the the JD(S) and Congress forging a post-poll alliance here was to prevent the BJP from gaining a political foothold.
Both the parties will fight the Lok Sabha polls together and are expected to win all the 28 parliamentary constituencies of the State, he said.
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The coalition coordination committee will take a call soon on the seat-sharing arrangement in the State, he said. There is a need for preventing fundamentalist forces from coming to power in the Centre as well as States, he said. To a query, he said he had no intention of becoming the Prime Minister again. However, he would contemplate on contesting the parliamentary elections if his health permits, he said.
Mr. Gowda blamed a section of media for allegedly instigating the farmers agitation in Belagavi. He said Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy will resolve all the issues of farmers, including sugarcane farmers, soon.