Janata Dal (Secular)'s Karnataka state president Adagur H Vishwanath resigned from his post Tuesday citing his party's poor performance in the recent Lok Sabha polls. The JD(S) suffered a massive defeat in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections with party supremo HD Devegowda also having lost from Tumkur. Announcing his resignation at a press conference, Vishwanath said, "I take moral responsibility for the party's defeat." The resignation was expected to be announced this evening after the JD(S) legislators meeting convened at CM Kumaraswamy's JP Nagar residence. Vishwanath had hinted he was considering resigning citing issues within the party in the recently held urban local body (ULB) polls as well. Vishwanath was reportedly unhappy at not being consulted while the candidate list for the ULB polls was finalised. JD(S) had won just 174 out of the 1,221 seats which witnessed the Congress making a comeback by securing 42 per cent of the wards in the states. Earlier, too, Vishwanath had been vocal in expressing his displeasure with Congress leader and former Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah's work as the JD(S)-Congress coalition coordination committee chief. "The (Congress-JDS) coalition coordination committee headed by Siddaramaiah, ironically, does not include the state presidents of both parties," he said at the press conference today. On being asked whether he expects a ministerial berth now, Vishwanath said he never "begged to become a minister." "If the government wants me to work in their cabinet, then I will definitely take up that task."
