Bangalore, Dec 22: The Janata Dal?(Secular) seems to be struggling to find the right candidates for at least 18 parliamentary seats in Karnataka, while the two prime parties, the Congress and the BJP,?are facing a fierce scramble for party tickets for the 2014 Lok Sabha election.
The JD(S) began its exercise of scouting around for winnable candidates in Bangalore on Saturday. Party supremo H?D?Deve Gowda, state party president A?Krishnappa and others held a daylong meeting, besides the JD(S)?Legislature Party meeting in the evening. The only agenda in both the meetings was selecting candidates for the coming elections.
Speaking to reporters, Krishnappa said the party would release the list of candidates by January 15 next year.
Despite facing a severe crunch of 'bankable' candidates to contest the elections, the party has clarified that it will go alone in the polls.
It has decided not to field the sitting MLAs. H?D Kumaraswamy, too, will not be contesting the poll this time around, it is said.
The JD(S)?is likely to approach the wife of the late Srikantadatta Wadiyar for contesting from Mysore, and field both the daughters-in-law of Deve Gowda, Anita Kumaraswamy and Bhavani Revanna elsewhere. While the party will look to change the constituency of Anita Kumaraswamy, after her back-to-back losses in Channapatna and Bangalore Rural LS constituency, Bhavani Revanna is almost certain to contest from one of the constituencies in the Vokkaliga belt. And the party is firm on fielding a woman for the Mandya seat, and Bhavani may settle for it, sources said.
While Gowda may not shift his base from Hassan, he is looking for candidates wherever the party has some hold. For example, it is not sure who would be able to cash in on the support base it has in Tumkur and Shimoga. The party will most certainly be fielding a member of the Bangarappa family from Shimoga. However, its strategies would fail if B?S?Yeddyurappa becomes the BJP nominee there, sources said.
The party, like in Dakshina Kannada, Udupi-Chikmagalur, Uttara Kannada, is finding tough to get candidates for all the three seats in Bangalore. It may not hesitate to field MLA Zameer Ahmed if he is willing to contest from Bangalore Central.
However, dismissing speculations, JD(S)?national president Deve Gowda told reporters that presently no decision had been arrived at.
“Let us not speculate. With regard to fielding the wife of Arasu (Srikantadatta Wadiyar), we do not intend to play politics at this juncture. Let her mourn for now. It is true we met Arasu.... On my daughter-in-laws, it is only in the media that it is being talked about. This (party and elections) is not a family affair,” he said.
Meanwhile, the party has handed over the responsibility of finalising the candidates to H D?Kumaraswamy.
Krishnappa said Gowda and Kumaraswamy had assured all leaders at their meeting that the party will rally together to face the stiff challenge of the national parties. He said the party will finalise all the changes to the district units, by way of replacements and new appointments, in the next few weeks.
Kumaraswamy, on his part, said he would soon take cognisance of the district units choice before announcing the list of probables.
“While the Congress may have garnered funds from all the alleged scams they have committed, and the BJP?drawing a lot of corporate funding by virtue of their prime ministerial candidate's pro-industry stance, money power may not be one which we can fight on. But we will go to the people with the idea of being an alternative force to the two national parties who have not given anything to the people,” he said.
Toying with the idea of a third front, Kumaraswamy said the JD(S)?has already extended an invitation to 17 like-minded 'secular' regional parties for coming together against the BJP?and the Congress. He said the JD(S)?is looking at hosting a mega rally of these secular like-minded parties in Karnataka by January-February 2014.
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