Daijiworld Media Network - New Delhi (SP) 

New Delhi, Oct 17: "Anyone who is prepared to accept the principles and philosophies of the Congress can join this party. But there is no question of giving admission into the party to those legislators who resigned together and caused the government to fall. I have already clearly stated this in the assembly session," said former Karnataka chief minister, Siddaramaiah. 

He was speaking to reporters here on Wednesday during his visit here. "We were the ones who complained to the assembly speaker against those who resigned from their party and engineered the debacle of the coalition government. Therefore it is impossible to give them entry into the Congress," he stated.

At the same time, he said that any legislators or former legislators from other parties including BJP can come into the Congress if they agree to the principles followed by the party. "We have no dearth of candidates for the by-poll. We will consider fielding people coming in from other parties only if our own workers are agreeable for this proposal. As of now, we have not extended an invitation to any of the leaders from other parties," he explained. 

Noting that date of by-poll has been fixed as December 5, he said that discussions have been held and list of candidates has been finalized except a few seats for which selection process is pending. He said that the list of candidates would be published soon, and that he is confident about his party becoming victorious in most of the seats. 

"I will make all out efforts to bring Congress back to power in the state. We have together promised to the people to unseat communalist party from power. During my meeting with Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, I discussed these issues and also thanked them for making me leader of the opposition in the assembly," he stated.