Major parties not to field rowdies in Mysore Corp polls

Mysore, Apr 10 (UNI) All the three major political parties in Karnataka -- Congress, BJP and JD(S) -- today decided not to field rowdies and anti-social elements in the coming city Corporation elections.

Congress city unit President C Dase Gowda, city BJP President B P Manjunath and city JD(S) President T Devaraju gave this assurance during an interaction with voters, arranged by the Association of Concerned and Informed Citizens of Mysore, an NGO here, when the electorate sought the parties' take on fielding those with criminial background.

Mr Manjunath initially tried to give an evasive reply, stating that a person facing charges could not be considered a criminal till he was proved guilty after a trial. As the voters took exception to the stand, Mr Manjunath finally declared that his party would not give tickers to those who indulged in extortion, mafia and money lending for high rates of interest.

Mr Gowda said a list of candidates with clean background, preferably educated, would be submitted to the party high command.

Mr Devaraj said his party would select candidates based on public opinion and no anti-social elements would be given tickets.

Hundreds of voters and party activists took part in the meeting.

UNI