We also want to send a message to the state that we will not support defection, Siddaramaiah said (File)
Former Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Wednesday said the main objective of the Congress and its former ally Janata Dal Secular in the coming assembly bypolls is to defeat the defectors, who are now BJP candidates.
Making it clear that the path of the two parties in achieving the objective was different, he said the rebels -- who were disqualified as Congress and JDS MLAs-- would be defeated by the people.
"Our main objective is that the defectors will have to lose, because they were responsible for the collapse of the coalition government. We also want to send a message to the state that we will not support defection," the Congress Legislature Party leader told reporters in Mysuru.
Asked if JDS leader HD Kumaraswamy too will support the objective, he said, "Whether he supports or not is different, but both our objective is one - defectors, disqualified should be defeated."
On whether the Congress-JDS would go together to defeat the defectors, he said, "The path is not same, it is different...".
Recently HD Kumaraswamy also had said the main strategy of his party, the JDS, in the bypolls was to defeat the defectors.
Congress and JDS, who had run a coalition government for 14 months and contested Lok Sabha polls in an alliance, have parted ways ever since the collapse of the Kumaraswamy government in July following rebellion by 17 MLAs.
The bypolls were necessitated after the resignation and subsequent disqualification of the 17 legislators by then assembly speaker KR Ramesh Kumar in July.
Though the Speaker had disqualified the MLAs till the end of the term of the present assembly in 2023, the Supreme Court last week allowed them to contest the bypolls.