The idea of a Janata Dal (Secular)-Bharatiya Janata Party alliance for the Lok Sabha bypolls has virtually collapsed, even before the deadline for filing nominations ended, as the BJP has said ‘no’ to the JD(S)’ condition to keep the alliance a “tacit” one instead of a formal one.
“We want the JD(S) to formally seek our support and publicly acknowledge the proposed coalition. But they want it to be tacit — where we either feel a dummy candidate or desist from fielding a candidate without any formal announcement on coalition. We are not willing to accept any such understanding,” highly placed sources in the BJP said.
“We have asked our party local units in both constituencies of Bangalore Rural and Mandya to field candidates for the bypolls, instead of the earlier plan of lending support to the JD(S). If the JD(S) agrees to formalise the coalition, we are willing to make our candidates withdraw their candidatures,” sources said.
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“In fact, JD(S) leaders are interested in forging an alliance with us. This matter has been discussed by them with us, with keen interest. They are also willing to keep from fielding candidates in the byelections to the three Council seats to reciprocate our gesture towards Lok Sabha polls.
But, the main hitch is that they are not willing to formalise this poll tie-up. We have decided to be firm and not to yield to such requests,” BJP sources said.
The party may choose either Tulasi Muniraju, Yuva Morcha vice-president, or Shankare Gowda, a party worker from Anekal, for the Bangalore Rural seat.
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Similarly, the choice is between Mandya district party workers Doreswamy and Ganesh for the Mandya Lok Sabha seat.