Deve Gowda rules out aligning with Congress

Bangalore, Sep 12: Former Prime Minister and Janata Dal (S) President H D Deve Gowda today ruled out the possibility of his party joining hands with the Congress to form an alternate government in Karnataka.

Speaking to newspersons here, Mr Gowda hinted that his party would hand over power to its coalition partner, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), as per their agreement, to continue the development works taken up by Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy.

However, he reiterated that the transfer of power would be formalised only after holding talks with top BJP leaders including A B Vajpayee, L K Advani and Rajnath Singh in New Delhi.

''There is a need for seeking clarification on certain issues with the BJP top brass before effecting the transfer of power,'' he added.

The JD(S) would fight the September 28 local body elections on its own and would have no truck with any political party, including the BJP. ''The party would stick to its policy of keeping both the Congress and the BJP at equi distance,'' he added.

He said the outcome of the local body elections could not be considered as a referendum on the JD(S)-BJP coalition government since the elections were fought on local issues.

UNI