Veerappa Moily blames Congress tie-up with JDS for Lok Sabha rout

Bringing to the fore again deep fissures in the Congress-JDS alliance in Karnataka, senior Congress leader M Veerappa Moily blamed the pre-poll alliance with the Janata Dal-Secular for the party’s poor performance in the southern state.

The former union minister said that the grand old party would have won 15 to 16 seats in the recently concluded Lok Sabha polls had there been no tie-up with JDS.

"Hundred per cent...not only here (Chikkaballapur).. in various constituencies... Had the party contested alone, it would have won 15-16 seats," he said.

Moily, the former union minister, was replying to a question on whether he would have won in Chikkaballapur if there had been no alliance. He lost the Lok Sabha seat to BN Bachhe Gowda of the BJP by 1.8 lakh votes.

"Our people (Congress) also opposed (me).. that is very clear," he said.

"Our party could retain only one (Bangalore Rural) of the 9 seats it had won in the 2014 elections, which was the highest from any state in the country," he added.

Asked about the reasons for those in Congress opposing him, he did not divulge much details, saying it may be because of power or money.

Congress and JDS that had faced the polls in alliance managed to win one seat each, while BJP won 25 seats. The saffron party supported independent candidate Sumalatha Ambareesh won in Mandya. While the JD-S contested 7 seats, it also won only one seat (Hassan).

He said he was not sure about contesting an election again, saying he does not have that desire, "but will continue to have the love and trust with the people here."