The Janata Dal Secular (JD-S) on Tuesday pulled out its candidate from the upcoming assembly polls in the Jayanagar constituency and extended its support to its coalition partner Congress.
In a statement, party President HD Deve Gowda announced that the Janata Dal (Secular) will instead support its alliance partner Congress. It has withdrawn its official candidate, Kalegowda, he added. The party said that all its workers will now campaign for Congress’ Sowmya Reddy.
Gowda's announcement in a release followed a meeting with him by senior Congress leader and former Minister Ramalinga Reddy, who is Sowmya Reddy's father.
The Karnataka assembly election was held on May 12 but the Jayanagar poll was countermanded following the death of BJP candidate BN Vijayakumar, who was holding the seat.
BJP has named BN Prahlad, brother of Vijaykumar, as its candidate.
Both the Congress and JD(S) had fielded candidates against each other, despite being coalition partners, in the recent election to the Rajarajeshwari Nagar assembly seat in the city.
Congress candidate Munirathna had won the seat, relegating the JD(S) candidate to a distant third.
At present, the Congress and the JD(S), along with the Bahujan Samaj Party and two independents, have the support of 118 MLAs, while the Bharatiya Janata Party has the support of 104 legislators.
