After Karnataka bypolls, Chandrababu Naidu to meet Deve Gowda, Kumaraswamy in Bengaluru today

Bengaluru: TDP supremo and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, who is trying to unite opposition parties to take on BJP in the Lok Sabha elections next year, will meet former prime minister HD Deve Gowda and chief minister HD Kumaraswamy here on Thursday.

Naidu will meet Gowda at his residence at Padmanabha Nagar and Kumaraswamy would also be present during the meeting, JD(S) said on Wednesday. Interestingly, Naidu’s meeting with the JD(S) supremo comes in the backdrop of Congress-JD(S) coalition resolving to contest the 2019 Lok Sabha elections together against the BJP,buoyed by the victory in the bypolls.

The Congress-JD(S)coalition in Karnataka on Tuesday won two of the three Lok Sabha seats and both assembly constituencies in the fiercely fought by-polls, giving a shot in the arm to the ruling combine that faces frequent questions about its longevity.

BJP had managed to hold on to the Shivamogga Lok Sabha seat. The electoral sweep by the ruling coalition comes as a boost to it as the by-polls were seen as a barometer of the public mood ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

Naidu had called his Karnataka counterpart over the phone on Tuesday and congratulated the latter on the JD(S)-Congress combine’s “spectacular victory” in the by-elections. JD(S) MLC Sharavana said Naidu’s meeting with Gowda is in continuation of the discussions the Andhra chief minister was holding with “secular” party leaders across the country.

“The bypolls results that have come is a good development as people of the state have understood the need for secular forces. He (Naidu) is expected to seek Deve Gowda’s cooperation,” he added. Naidu had also recently met NCP chief Sharad Pawarand National Conference president Farooq Abdullah, among others.