Bengaluru: The Karnataka Congress on Thursday, announced that it would field K C Kondaiah, a senior leader from the party for the Deputy Chairman post in the state Legislative Council.
As per the report by PTI, the Congress party has decided to field Kondaiah to “expose” the JD(S), which has joined hands with the BJP and will will be backing their candidate for the same post, elections for which will be held on Friday, January 29.
It can be recalled that on Wednesday, the BJP and JD(S) had decided to join hands and contest the election for the posts of Karnataka Legislative Council Chairman and Deputy Chairman. While the BJP has agreed to support the JD(S) for the Chairman’s post, the latter will support the former for the Deputy Chairman’s post.
Reportedly, M K Pranesh will be the ruling BJP party’s candidate for the post of Deputy Chairman.
Top Congress sources, according to PTI, said that the party chose Kondaiah even though his chances of winning are slim, just to “expose” the JD(S).
Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly, Siddaramaiah said that they are fielding a candidate for the post as they are “confident about getting conscience votes”.
“The JD(S) claims that they are secularists. Their true colour will be exposed in this election,” he added.
Party sources said that during the CLP meeting held earlier on Thursday, Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee President D K Shivakumar did not want to field a candidate for the post, but Siddaramaiah insisted on moving forward.
It can be recalled that the Deputy Chairman’s post fell vacant after the alleged suicide of JD(S)’ S L Dharmegowda.
(with inputs from PTI)
