No understanding with JD(S) for Nov 3 bypolls, asserts Siddaramaiah

Bengaluru: The Congress in Karnataka on Wednesday ruled out any understanding with its former alliance partner JD(S) for the November 3 by-election to two assembly constituencies in the state.

"We are not going to have an alliance with any political party. We will fight on our own.

Congress is a national party. We have the strength and we will fight," Congress Legislature Party Leader Siddaramaiah told reporters in response to a question about any understanding with the JD(S) to defeat the BJP.

Responding to a similar question about a friendly fight with JD(S), state Congress President D K Shivakumar too said, "They (JDS) are a party and similarly we (Congress) are another party.

We will fight our election and they will fight theirs."

The Election Commission on Tuesday announced the schedule for by-election to Sira assembly constituency in Tumakuru district and Rajarajeshwari Nagar (R R Nagar) in the city, for which the results will be declared on November 10.

The bypoll in Sira was necessitated following the death of sitting MLA B Sathyanarayana of JD(S) last month, while the R R Nagar seat fell vacant after disqualification of Congress MLA N Munirathna under the anti-defection law in 2019.

Siddaramaiah said the Congress was prepared to fight the elections and was confident of winning both seats.

"...We have finalised a strong candidate in Sira--T B Jayachandra-- who is a senior leader of the party.

For Rajarajeswari Nagar, we are yet to finalise the candidate as the election was announced just yesterday. We will sit and decide on a strong candidate there," he said.

Asked whether Congress was facing difficulty in finding a candidate for R R Nagar, he said the party never has a dearth of probable candidates and in every constituency there will be at least eight to ten of them.

Munirathna, who had contested and won on a Congress ticket from R R Nagar in 2018, is now with the BJP and is likely to be the saffron party's candidate for the seat.

Noting that all elections are prestigious for all the parties, KPCC chief Shivakumar said the party has finalised the candidate for Sira constituency.

"For RR Nagar, we have spoken to the district unit and the process is on," he said.

Regarding the aspirants for RR Nagar, he said several applications have been received.

"We were not sure about the election being declared for the constituency. Now that it has been done, we will finalise the candidate," he said.