Cong to have no pre-poll tie-up with BSY: Moily

Congress will have no pre-poll alliance with B S Yeddyurappa’s (BSY) Karnataka Janata Paksha (KJP), senior party leader Veerappa Moily said today dismissing reports in this regard. Elated by the Congress’ victory in bypolls held in two Karnataka Lok Sabha seats, Moily also said the march of BJP strongman Narendra Modi is “just in the backburner”.

He said a firm “no” when asked whether Congress would forge a pre-poll alliance with former Chief Minister Yeddyurappa’s KJP. His statement assumes significance in the wake of reports that the former Chief Minister may mulls a deal with Congress as he did not receive clear signals from BJP on getting him back into the party.

“The march of Modi is just in the backburner,” Moily told reporters outside Parliament House hours after two newly-elected members Congress members from Karnataka, actress-turned-politician Ramya and D K Suresh, took oath as MPs. He said the election result is a clear message that Modi will not be able to create any impct either in Karnataka or rest of the country.

The Oil Minister said that the election results also indicates that the people of the state have rejected the move by both Janata Dal (Secular) and BJP to have a seat sharing agreement in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls. “This is also an indication that people of Karnataka did not tolerate — they don’t want Janata Dal (S), they don’t want BJP. This is the rejection of both these parties,” he said.

He had said in a statement yesterday that the success of the candidates has more significance as JD-S had obtained the support of BJP. Multilingual actress Ramya on her electoral debut defeated C S Puttaraju of JD(S) in Mandya, the nucleus of his party’s Vokkaliga vote base, by a margin of 67,611 votes.

In Bangalore Rural, former Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy’s wife Anitha Kumaraswamy of JD(S) lost by a margin of over 137,000 votes to ruling party’s D K Suresh, brother of state party leader D K Shivakumar.