New Delhi: After refusing to transfer power to BJP, its coalition partner in Karnataka JD(S) favoured fresh elections in the state and ruled out any truck with Congress to continue in power.

"Our intention is to go for people's mandate," JD(S) President H D Deve Gowda told reporters after an extended meeting of the Political Affairs Committee which reviewed the political situation in the wake of BJP withdrawing support to Kumaraswamy government.

To repeated questions whether JD(S) would have any tie up with the Congress to remain in the saddle, he categorically ruled out any such arrangement saying his party stuck to the policy of maintaining equidistance from both Congress and BJP.

He dismissed a suggestion that JD(S) was "power hungry" as it had aligned with both Congress and BJP to govern, but when it came to honouring its commitment to transfer power, it did not do so.

Gowda said JD(S) was "constrained to recommend to the state party not to transfer power to BJP" as the saffron party not only began a "vicious campaign" against JD(S) particularly targeting the Chief Minister and his family, but also an FIR was filed against the Chief Minister by one of the BJP Ministers charging him with murder conspiracy.

He said the BJP was "unnerved" by the growing popularity of the Chief Minister as was reflected in the outcome of the recent civil polls.

Asked whether any communication channel was open with Congress, Gowda said the question of communication channel with other political parties was not in his mind or in the minds of his party leaders.

On the purpose behind convening a special session of the Assembly on October 18 when the party has already decided to go to the people, he said it was aimed at explaining the events of the past 20 months of the coalition government that led to this situation.

Having made up his mind to face elections, the former Prime Minister said the people would be final arbiters. To a point blank question on how "trustworthy" he was in the backdrop of his party not honouring its commitment, he said, "It is going to be decided by the people".

On how soon he expected the polls to take place, he said it was for the Election Commission to decide.

Asked whether he has "regained" his secular credentials after snapping ties with the saffron party, Gowda retorted that the recent civic poll results has proved beyond doubt that the JD(S) was "true to secular credentials".

Spewing venom at BJP, the former Prime Minister said that state BJP leaders started indulging in a "vituperative smear campaign, unparalleled in the history of coalition governments anywhere in the world".

But still, the Chief Minister "suffered the humiliation silently" to avoid burdening the state with another election, he said.

Seeking to project his party's secular image, Gowda said the Chief Minister crushed with an iron hand attempt by Sangh Parivar to whip up communal frenzy in the state by raking up issues like Dattapeetha.

A statement released at the press conference said that JD(S) chief himself wrote to the BJP top brass about the attempts by the BJP and the Sangh Parivar elements to vitiate the communal atmosphere in the state.

"However, the senior BJP leaders did not even show the basic courtesy to respond to the communication", it said.

Gowda said the BJP's silence was motivated by extraneous factors and did not betray any effort to save the coalition or have friendly relations with the coalition partner.

The JD(S) supremo said the PAC decided not to transfer power to BJP in order to prevent Karnataka being turned into a "Hindutva laboratory" on the lines of Gujarat by the Sangh Parivar outfits.

Talking to reporters separately, JD(S) spokesman Y S V Datta hit back at senior BJP leader M Venkaiah Naidu for his charge that JD(S) had betrayed its coalition partner in the state.

Datta said, "JD(S) was repenting for committing the sin of having shared power with the BJP".

Since the party was "humiliated" by the Congress, it was forced to side with the BJP but in the process, BJP benefited a lot while JD(S) suffered "humiliation, embarrassment and lost its vote bank," he said.