The loss of the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress may turn out to be a gain for Janata Dal-Secular, which is trying to poach disgruntled candidates from both these parties.
A senior JD-S leader told rediff.com that they would wait till both the BJP and the Congress finalise their lists. The JD-S will then try to rope in those BJP and Congress members who have been denied a party ticket.
After the BJP released its first list of candidates, there was severe discontent among senior party members, who had not been given tickets for the forthcoming Karnataka assembly elections.
JD-S leaders are in constant touch with several candidates of both the Congress and the BJP and are hopeful that these candidates would agree to join their party. The Congress and the BJP have recently pocketed several JD-S candidates and now Deve Gowda's party has the opportunity to return the favour.
The rebel candidates who join the JD-S will be given tickets from constituencies where the JD-S has a weak track record. A senior JD-S leader said that they would adopt a wait and watch policy before announcing their final list.
To tackle the JD-S, the Congress is trying to delay the announcement of its final list, while the BJP is trying to downplay the widespread resentment among its party members.
BJP leader Arun Jaitley recently said that such things were bound to happen when there were several aspiring candidates in the fray. Jaitley also hinted that there might be last minute changes in the BJP's list of candidates.
