Sharief, Sangliana likely to join JD(S): Deve Gowda

Bangalore: Congress veteran CK Jaffer Sharief and former MP HT Sangliana are likely to join JDS, party supremo and former prime minister HD Deve Gowda said on Thursday.

Speaking to reporters, Gowda said, "If everything comes through, especially after the meeting I had with him, Sharief will contest from Mysore. Sangliana also had talks with me and the party will decide on his entry in the next few days." Another former MP Dhananjay Kumar, a one-time close associate of former chief minister BS Yeddyurappa, meanwhile, joined JD-S today and was named the party candidate for Udupi-Chikmagalur constituency. Yeddyurappa returned to BJP merging his Karnataka Janatha Paksha into it, but some of his followers on whom the door was shut included Kumar, who had made no-holds-barred personal attacks on senior BJP leader LK Advani. An eight-time MP, Sharief is sulking after the party denied him the ticket to contest from Bangalore Central. He lost an election for the first time ironically at the hands of Sangliana of BJP then in the 2004 elections. Sangliana, a former Bangalore Police Commissioner, joined the Congress in 2009, when he lost from Bangalore Central. "I had been associated with JDS President Deve Gowda since Jan Sangh days. I thank him for accepting me in his party, which is a secular outfit," Kumar said. Welcoming Kumar, Gowda said he was a member of the Jana Sangh, which fought against the Emergency imposed by Congress government headed by Indira Gandhi. "When he expressed his desire to join the JD(S) without any condition, I welcomed him," he said. Gowda also released the second list of three candidates for the elections. Apart from Kumar, the other two candidates, who will contest, are D G sagar and C S Puttaraju from Gulbarga (SC) and Mandya, respectively. Earlier, JD-S had announced the names of twelve candidates for the April 17 elections. Gowda is seeking re-election from Hassan. "The remaining 13 candidates names will be announced in next three to four days," Gowda said. In the last Lok Sabha polls, the then ruling BJP had bagged 19 of the 28 seats, Congress six and JD(S) three.