Bengaluru: Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu, who is trying to unite opposition parties to take on BJP in the Lok Sabha elections next year, met former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda and Karnataka chief minister HD Kumaraswamy in Bengaluru today.

Naidu met Gowda at his residence at Padmanabha Nagar, and Kumaraswamy was also present during the meeting. “We are uniting to save democracy, institutions and Constitution of the country,” Naidu said to the media after meeting the JD(S) leaders.

Naidu added, "It is required that all the opposition parties unite to save democracy at a time when national institutions such as the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) can be compromised. The investigation agency, which is supposed to be autonomous, is now being used to keep the opposition under control." 

"1996 will repeat in 2019," HD Kumaraswamy said referring to the time when various regional parties managed to bring up a United Front with Deve Gowda as the Prime Minister of India. He further said, "I plan to hold the event by December-end or January-beginning. All regional leaders, except BJP members, will be invited."

The Congress-JD(S) coalition in Karnataka on Tuesday won two of the three Lok Sabha seats and both Assembly constituencies in the fiercely fought by-polls, giving a shot in the arm to the ruling combine that faces frequent questions about its longevity.

The electoral sweep by the ruling coalition comes as a boost to it as the by-polls were seen as a barometer of the public mood ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

Naidu had called his Karnataka counterpart over the phone on Tuesday and congratulated the latter on the JD(S)-Congress combine's "spectacular victory" in the by-elections.

The Congress and TDP announced an alliance to contest in the upcoming elections together to defeat BJP. Congress president Rahul Gandhi and TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu said that they have to fight together to deliver on the people’s aspirations.