AMN / Bengaluru

TDP chief and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu Thursday met Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) supremo HD Deve Gowda here as part of his campaign to unite the opposition parties against the BJP ahead of the 2019 general elections.

“The meeting with former Prime Minister Deve Gowda and Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy was an initial exercise to unite the opposition parties,” Naidu told media persons after an hour-long meet at Gowda’s residence in the city’s southwestern suburb.

The opposition parties will work together to “save” Indian democracy, the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) supremo said.

“Under the NDA government, all autonomous institutions like the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) have been destroyed,” he added.

The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government’s policies like demonetisation have thrown the country’s economy into a crisis, Naidu claimed.

“It is the responsibility of the opposition parties to join hands and save the democracy,” he stressed.

Naidu’s meeting with the JD-S leaders comes a week after he met Congress President Rahul Gandhi in New Delhi on November 1 as part of his effort to unify the opposition.

“We discussed the future course of action for forging an alliance ahead of the 2019 general elections,” Gowda told reporters after the meeting.

The meeting with Naidu was to bring together the “secular forces” in the country, said Kumaraswamy.