BANGALORE, NOV 15: Two senior Janata Dal (United) leaders in Karnataka have called a meeting of senior party leaders and all party candidates, who had contested the Assembly and Lok Sabha elections here on December 11 for a session of ``soul searching''.Talking to newsmen here on Monday, Basavaraja Rayareddy and A B Patil, both former ministers, said the meeting would discuss measures to strengthen the party at different levels as elections to gram panchayats, taluk panchayats and zilla panchayats were scheduled to be held in the next six months. The meeting will also discuss about alliance with other parties at the national and state level.He said former chief minister J H Patel, former union minister Ramakrishna Hegde, JD (U) state unit president C Byre Gowda and state Lok Shakthi president Jeevaraj Alva would be invited for the meeting. Rayareddy said it would not be ideologically correct for parties to have understanding at the national level and fight each other at the state level.To a question, he said the merger of the JD (U) and the JD (S) was not on the agenda. However, there were technical problems over the merger of the Lok Shakthi and the JD(U) and it would be sorted out by the month end, he said adding that the party had secured 30 per cent of the votes in Lok Sabha and 28 per cent in the Assembly elections. The JD(S) had polled 11.89 and 11.37 respectively.
