Daijiworld Media Network - Mangalore (SP)
Pics: Dayananda Kukkaje

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Mangalore, Oct 13: Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee(KPCC) president R V Deshpande as well as ex-chief minister and JD(S) leader H D Kumaraswami are inclined towards entering into an electoral understanding for the ensuing bypoll.

Both of them gave clear indications of their preference on this issue, speaking to reporters who met them during their visit to the city on Sunday October 12, for participating in a private function.

"KPCC has an open mind about striking an understanding. We will take a decision soon, after discussing the issue with the high command," said Deshpande. He added, the party will have dialogues with the JD(S) leaders thereafter.

Deshpande alleged, that the state government has miserably failed in containing terrorist activities. The state policemen woke up to the grave realities after the central team arrived here, following leads they got about them. This gives clear indication about the fact that the home department is highly inefficient, he charged.

When he was questioned regarding the statement given by Raju Shetty, accused in the murder of Dileep Nayak from Karwar during his narco-analysis tests, that Deshpande had played a role in the murder, Deshpande said, he would leave it to the people to decide for themselves about the veracity of this statement. "I do not wish to add anything on the issue, other than insisting that proper investigation should be conducted in the case and that the guilty should be punished," he clarified.

Speaking to reporters, Kumaraswami said that he would welcome the initiatives if any the Congress leaders might undertake to discuss the issue of electoral understanding with his party, subject to the condition that the dialogues are not marred by pre-conceived prejudices against his party. Let that party study the winning prospects of both the parties in each of these constituencies and then move ahead on the issue, he suggested.

He also said, that the JD(S) is ready to hold talks with the president as well as the vice-president of the KPCC on the issue, and the process has already been set into motion.

The ex-chief minister also felt, that the examples of treating the opposition with so much derision by the chief minister has never been found in the past. "Unless the chief minister mends his ways, we will give him a fitting reply on the floor of the assembly," Kumaraswamy declared.