No truck with Congress, BJP, will finalise candidates by December: Gowda

Bengaluru: Once again ruling out forming an alliance with either the Bharatiya Janata Party or Congress for the coming elections to the state assembly, Janata Dal (Secular) supremo H.D. Deve Gowda on Monday said that he would finalise the list of his party candidates by December.

“If we get a clear mandate our party will rule the state. Otherwise we will sit in opposition,” he reiterated.

Mr Gowda, who was addressing his partymen on the occasion of Gandhi Jayanthi, said that it was important for regional parties to come to power in the interest of states as governments headed by both the national parties merely worked for their own interests and not for the development of a state or country.

“After Mr Narendra Modi’s Man Ki Baath (on AIR), Mr Siddaramaiah has started Kaam Ki Baath (on the radio). But instead of concentrating on developmental work both governments are trying to reach out to people through expensive advertisements in newspapers. In the process there has been no fall in poverty and the achievements of the governments they head are only 10 per cent of what they claim,” Mr Gowda said.

Noting that in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, regional parties did not allow the national parties to win elections, and in Kerala, the Left parties were trying to push the Congress party back, Mr Gowda, however, maintained that it was very difficult to fight the money power of both the BJP and Congress.