Cong charges Gowda with trying to postpone Chamundeshwari byelecti

New Delhi, Oct 19 (UNI) The Congress today charged former Prime Minister and JD(S)leader H D Deve Gowda with trying to postpone the Chamundeshwari Assembly byelection in Karnataka.

Mr Gowda has approached the Election Commission with a plea to delay the byelection as he sensed a defeat, Congress secretary Praveen Dawar told UNI here, adding the Congress would oppose Mr Gowda's plea.

The Congress was in favour of early elections as the bypoll is overdue and there is no reason to delay it any longer, Mr Dawar said. ''We are fully prepared and confident of victory,'' he added.

Mr Dawar said margin of victory of Mr Siddaramaiah this time will be much higher than the last time. Mr Siddaramaiah had polled 43 per cent of the total votes in the last elections when he had contested as a JD(S)candidate while the Congress had polled 27 per cent votes. The BJP got only 18 per cent votes. Now with Mr Siddaramaiah in the Congress, he is bound to win with a record margin.

Mr Dawar said the JD(S)-led Karnataka Government was announcing development schemes and sops for Dalits in a bid to woo them in view of the forthcoming Assembly elections. The funds earmarked for development of Dalits in the entitr state have been channelised to Chamundeshwari, he addded.

Byelection in Chamundeshwari in Mysore district was necessiated after former Deputy Chief Minister Siddaramaiah resigned to join the Congress. The byelection is slated to be held in November.

Mr Siddaramaiah had resigned after JD(S) joined hands with the BJP to form a Govenment.

UNI YS AK BST2011