Karnataka's ruling Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) on Tuesday withdrew its candidate from the June 11 assembly election in Bengaluru's Jayanagar assembly constituency in favour of its coalition ally Congress' contestant, a party official said on Tuesday.
"On the directive of party supremo H.D. Deve Gowda, Kalegowda has withdrawn from the contest in support of the Congress and to prevent division of secular votes," the official told IANS.
Sowmya Reddy is the daughter of veteran Congress leader and former Home Minister Ramalinga Reddy, who was re-elected from the BTM Layout segment in the city south in the May 12 assembly election.
The election to the Jayanagar seat was postponed following the death of BJP candidate BN Vijaya Kumar on May 4 and re-scheduled to June 11. Vote count is on June 13.
The BJP, which emerged as the single largest party in the 225-member hung assembly, on May 22 nominated BN Prahlad, younger brother of Kumar, as its candidate to retain the prestigious seat.
In all, 19 candidates, including nine Independents are in the fray. The other woman candidate in the contest is Nayeema Khanum of the Praja Raita Raajya Paksha.
Earlier, on June 3, as a fallout of the Congress' below par performance in the assembly elections, Karnataka North Working President SR Patil resigned from his position.
Patil tendered his resignation to party President Rahul Gandhi citing moral grounds due to the party's performance in the 2018 polls.
Patil had been a minister in the Siddaramaiah-led government from 2013 to 2018. He served as Minister for Infrastructure, Information Technology, Biotechnology, Science and Technology, Planning and Statistics in the state government.
“I have sent my resignation to Rahul Gandhi through an email some days back after taking up moral responsibility for the party’s unsatisfactory performance in Assembly elections. Had my party won more seats from North Karnataka, we would have formed the government on our own,” Patil reportedly told mediapersons in Bengaluru.