Objective of Cong, JDS is to defeat defectors, Siddaramaiah on

Former Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah on Wednesday said the main objective of Congress and its erstwhile alliance partner JDS in the coming assembly byelections is to defeat defectors from the two parties who are now the BJP candidates.

Making it clear that the path of the two parties in achieving the objective was different, He asserted the rebels who were disqualified as Congress and JDS MLAs would be defeated by the people in the elections to be held to the 15 assembly constituencies on December 5.

"Our main objective is defectors will have to lose, because they were responsible for the collapse of the coalition government. We also want to send a message to the state that we will not support defection," the Congress Legislature Party leader told reporters in Mysuru.

Asked if JD(S) leader H D Kumaraswamy too will support the objective, he said, "whether he supports or not is different, but both our objective is one - defectors, disqualified should be defeated."
Evading a direct answer to a question on whether the BJP government will collapse after the byelections, Siddaramaiah merely said, "What will happen if BJP is unable win the required number of seatsyou tell me."