JD-S not to ally with Congress for Karnataka bypolls: Ramesh Babu

Janata Dal-Secular National General Secretary Ramesh Babu said on Saturday that the party will not have alliance with the Congress for the forthcoming bye-elections to 15 Assembly seats in Karnataka.

"Our party's national president H D Deve Gowda and former chief minister H D Kumaraswamy have clarified things. We will have no alliance with the Congress party in the upcoming by-elections and will fight on our own," he told ANI.

Babu said that people of Karnataka will now teach a lesson to the MLAs who had resigned "for their personal benefit".

The bye-elections in the state will be held on October 21 to 15 constituencies after rebel Congress and JD-S rebel MLAs were disqualified by the then Speaker. The counting of votes will take place on October 24.

FormerSpeaker K R Ramesh Kumar had disqualified 17 rebel MLAs days after the Congress-JD(S) government collapsed after losing the confidence motion in the Assembly. The disqualified MLAs included 13 from the Congress, 3 from the JD(S), and an Independent.

Several JD-S and Congress legislators had tendered their resignation triggering a political crisis which saw the JD (S)-congress coalition government losing trust vote in July this year and BJP leader BS Yeddyurappa again taking oath as chief minister.

The disqualified MLAs had moved the court over Speaker's action which they called "wholly illegal, arbitrary and mala fide".

Asked about bypoll to 15 seats in Karnataka, Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora told a news conference on Saturday that there was "specific request" in only two cases.

"In other cases, there is no stay order from any court. We have legally examined it. We can go ahead," he said.