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Congress committee blames tie-up with JD(S) for Lok Sabha loss

The report comes at a time when the Congress central leadership is considering allying with the JD(S) to contest the bypolls for 17 Assembly seats in December, which could determine the future of the present BJP-run government.

Congress committee blames tie-up with JD(S) for Lok Sabha loss The Lok Sabha had thrown up a landslide victory for the BJP, with the saffron party winning 25 of the 28 Lok Sabha seats in Karnataka, while the Congress and JD (S) won one seat each. (Source: twitter/@hd_kumaraswamy)

A fact-finding committee of the Congress in Karnataka, which explored the reasons for the party’s poor showing in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, has blamed the coalition forged with the JD(S) as the main reason.

The committee, comprising six party leaders, presented its report to state Congress president Dinesh Gundu Rao on October 1. The committee expressed a point of view held by several Congress leaders, including former chief minister Siddaramaiah, who were opposed to the alliance with the JD(S) from the outset. The Congress-JD(S) coalition government collapsed in July, two months after the Lok Sabha polls, with 17 legislators from from both parties defecting to the BJP.

The report comes at a time when the Congress central leadership is considering allying with the JD(S) to contest the bypolls for 17 Assembly seats in December, which could determine the future of the present BJP-run government.

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“In the history of Lok Sabha elections in Karnataka, the party has not suffered such a big setback, the committee has observed. This is a sad development in terms of the state and the party,” the committee stated in its report.

“In the Lok Sabha elections, at the booth level, block level and the district level, the coalition with the JD(S) worked only in Shivamogga, Hassan, three constituencies of the Bengaluru Urban district and the Bengaluru Rural constituency. In the remaining 22 constituencies, the coalition did not function at the ground level,” the report said.

Festive offer

“The committee is of the view that the constant infighting between the Congress and JD(S) in the coalition government was not acceptable to the people of the state.”

The Lok Sabha had thrown up a landslide victory for the BJP, with the saffron party winning 25 of the 28 Lok Sabha seats in Karnataka, while the Congress and JD (S) won one seat each. The remaining seat was won by an Independent candidate, who was backed by the BJP and Congress rebels.

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“It is the opinion of all candidates of the Congress party, office bearers and leaders at various levels that the party must not ally with the JD(S) to contest future polls for local bodies, the state Assembly and the Parliament. Such alliances should be considered only if it is inevitable in order to keep our main rival the BJP away from power,” states the report.

“It is essential that the party must be strengthened from the grassroots and the party president must take steps in this direction. Giving tickets to family members of party leaders and ignoring long term workers is detrimental to the morale in the party,’’ the report says.

First uploaded on: 06-10-2019 at 04:35 IST
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