Bengaluru: A day after Congress leaders, including Mallikharjun Kharge, All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary and Karnataka in-charge K C Venugopal, former chief minister Veerappa M Moily, V S Ugrappa etc batted for a post by-election alliance between the JD(S) and the Congress, JD(S) supremo H D Devegowda rejected the proposal.

“I will fight by keeping the Congress and the BJP at an equal distance,” he said.

“My target is to make the JDS a strong force in the state. Everyone knows who destabilised the state government led by H D Kumaraswamy. I don’t want a repeat of the same experiment,” he said.

He also declined to criticise Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa. “I am not here to criticise anyone,” he said.