Bengaluru: In a show of unity, the Congress and JDS in Karnataka will hold a joint rally in Bengaluru on March 31. Presidents of both the parties, Rahul Gandhi of the Congress and Deve Gowda of the JDS, will share the dais and sound the poll bugle against their common foe -- the BJP.
After an hour-long meeting between co-ordination committee chairperson Siddaramaiah, Deve Gowda, chief minister HD Kumaraswamy, Karnataka Congress president Dinesh Gundurao, minister DK Shivakumar and Rajya Sabha MP Kupendra Reddy, Gowda said the common goal of coalition parties is to reduce the BJP to single digits in Karnataka.
"Our primary agenda is to tackle the BJP. We can resolve our smaller issues after the elections. Issues in Mysore and Mandya will be solved. We might have some issues. Modi mocks the idea of mahaghatbandhan. But the BJP itself is running coalition governments in many states. We will answer them by winning this election. The JDS and Congress are one and the same in this election. In the upcoming Karnataka rally, will set an example for everybody. Today, Siddaramaiah and I are sitting next to each other. We are all together in this fight," Gowda said.
"Nomination has started. We hardly have time left. So we are speeding things up. Rahul Gandhi and I will hold a rally on March 31 . But we won't wait till the 31st. We have already started work," he added.
The leaders also addressed the possible issues between the two parties' workers, who have been rivals traditionally, especially in the old Mysore region. To address this, Siddaramaiah said the party workers have been asked to work together keeping aside their differences. The coalition partners will henceforth have one spokesperson in order to iron out any probable differences.
The BJP, Congress and JDS are yet to release their candidate lists. Congress is likely to release its list of candidates by March 22, Dinesh Gundurao said.
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