JD(S) to contest byelections to all three Assembly seats

The former Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy on Sunday announced that the party would filed candidates in the byelections to Maski, Basavakalyan, and Sindagi Assembly constituencies. This comes close on the heels of party supremo H.D. Deve Gowda’s statement that the party would not field candidates, which was later construed by Congress leaders as a decision that would help the BJP. He clarified that owing to paucity of funds to fight the byelections, the party had decided not to field candidates and the same had been announced by Mr. Gowda. “There have been allegations that we were not contesting the byelections to help the BJP. We had not discussed the issue with Mr. Gowda. Let there be no confusion. We have decided to field our candidates.”