A Krishnappa is new JD(S) president

Former minister A Krishnappa is the new president of the state JD(S) unit.
Krishnappa, who will succeed HD Kumaraswamy was elected at a meeting of party leaders, chaired by party national president HD Deve Gowda, at a city hotel on Wednesday.

Krishnappa left the Congress on the eve of the last assembly elections to join the JD(S), after the Congress leadership denied him a ticket to contest the elections.

Speaking with reporters after the election, Deve Gowda said the decision was subjected to ratification by the party’s national executive, which would meet in October last week in Bangalore. “There has been propaganda that JD(S) is a father-children party and represents one community. We wanted to send across a message debunking such propaganda,’’ he said.

With the election of a new president, the state unit office-bearers and other committees will change. Krishnappa, in consultation with the national president and opposition leader in the state assembly HD Kumaraswamy, will appoint the new office-bearers. “I will tour other states, where JD(S) is in a position to fight Parliament elections. This include Kerala, where we have a tie-up with the Left parties for the last 30 years,’’ Gowda said.

Krishnappa said his first priority will be to organise the party in all the districts and prepare it for the Lok Sabha elections.

“We will present before the people the failure of the Congress at both the national and State level. By making Siddaramaiah chief minister, the Congress feels that it has much for the backward classes. But, both Deve Gowda and Kumaraswamy, when they were in power, helped the backward classes much more than the Congress every did,’’ he added.