US EDITION
COLUMNISTS
DIARY
SPECIALS
INTERVIEWS
CAPITAL BUZZ
REDIFF POLL
DEAR REDIFF
THE STATES
YEH HAI INDIA!
ELECTIONS
ARCHIVES

Search Rediff

Ananth Kumar opposes tie-up with JD faction

Union Civil Aviation Minister Ananth Kumar today expressed his opposition to any alliance with the Janata Dal faction led by Chief Minister J H Patel in Karnataka for the forthcoming Lok Sabha and assembly elections.

Ananth Kumar said the Bharatiya Janata Party had been built "brick by brick" in the state with the sole aim of unseating the Janata Dal and there was no way it would have any tie-up with Patel's party.

During a chat with reporters in New Delhi, Kumar, who was elected to the Lok Sabha from Bangalore South in 1998, admitted that seat sharing with the Lok Shakti this time round would be a laborious process.

He claimed that the Congress in the state had been hit badly after senior politician M Rajshekhara Murthy left to join the BJP. The Congress had an edge six months ago, but after the Sonia Gandhi fiasco [of not being able to form a government at the Centre and its stand on Kargil], its popularity has come down, he said.

UNI

RELATED REPORT:
Path cleared for Janata Dal's entry into NDA

Tell us what you think of this report