Bengaluru, Jul 7 (DHNS): In a U-turn, the JD(S) on Thursday decided not to release its candidates’ list for the next Assembly elections in advance, citing poaching by rival parties.

JD(S) state president H D Kumaraswamy had been claiming that the party will release its list of candidates well ahead of the Assembly elections as the party wanted its nominees to prepare well in advance for the elections.

Kumaraswamy had stated that the party will release its list of candidates in February and later had said the list will be out in June.

But on Thursday, JD(S) national president and former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda took a different stand in this regard.

Gowda told reporters after chairing the JD(S) core committee meeting, “I have told the meeting not to release the list now. The party has been a victim of ‘Operation Lotus’ (poaching of legislators). We lost eight candidates....But we have able candidates in most of the districts,” he said.

Later, addressing a press conference, Kumaraswamy said Thursday’s meeting was convened at the behest of Gowda. The meeting discussed the constitution of booth committees and taluk committees. He said it was decided that the party should hold one mammoth convention per month in different parts of the state in the run-up to the Assembly elections.

Former minister and Congress leader A H Vishwanth, who joined the JD(S) recently, has been made in-charge of the Other Backward Classes (OBC) wing of the party, he said.

A convention of farmers will be held in Vijayapura, that of minorities in Raichur, that of Dalits in Tumakuru, women in Bengaluru and youth in Haveri in the coming months.

Kumaraswamy said the party had started discussions on its manifesto for the Assembly elections. The JD(S) will hold a padayatra in Dakshina Kannada to condemn the recent unrest in the region.

Kumaraswamy reiterated that only he and his brother H D Revanna will contest the Assembly elections from the Gowda family.

However, Kumaraswamy said there was tremendous pressure that his wife Anita Kumaraswamy contest from Channapatna. “A suitable decision will be taken at a suitable time,” he said. Anita Kumaraswamy had reportedly announced in Channapatna that she will contest the next Assembly elections.