Bengaluru, Dec 17: Giving clear indications that he was all set to join the Congress, independent MLA from Hoskote assembly constituency Sharath Bachegowda on Thursday said he wants to be associated with a national party which would give him an opportunity to lend voice to broader issues.

Amid speculation for some time now about his joining the Congress, Sharath Bachegowda met Congress Karnataka president D K Shivakumar at the latter's residence last night.

"The subject matter at yesterday's meeting was on the upcoming gram panchayat and District Co-operative Central (DCC) Bank elections which we are fighting together," Sharath said.

Speaking to PTI, he said, it is not that the issue of joining Congress did not come up for discussion during the meeting, but nothing is concrete as yet and no absolute time frame has been fixed for it.

Asked if he has made up his mind to join Congress, Sharath said, ".... I'm looking to align with some national party...there are many broad issues which are happening right now to which I want to lend my voice.So joining a national party would make sense for me."

Sharath, 37, is the son of BJPs Member of Parliament from Chikkaballapur B N Bachegowda, and had served as secretary of BJP's Yuva Morcha in the past.

He was expelled from the BJP as he rebelled and decided to contest against the party's official candidate MTB Nagaraj during the December 2019 assembly bypolls.

He then went on pull off a victory in the bypolls with his 'Swabhimani' campaign as an independent candidate.

Sharath was against the BJP's decision to field Nagaraj who had jumped ship from the Congress.

In the 2018 assembly election, Sharath, who was the BJP candidate, had lost to Nagaraj, who was then with the Congress.

Asked about why he was not joining the JD(S) which had supported him during the bypolls without fielding a candidate, Sharath, who holds a mechanical engineering degree and did his MS in the US, said "I want to identify myself with a national party."

According to Congress party sources, Sharath may join the party some time in the new year and things are being worked out.

To a question on not reconciling with the BJP as his father is still in the party, he said, "in order to have a reconciliation, there needs to be an approach.Since there hasn't been an approach, there is nothing of that sorts."

"With Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa clearly backing his opponent Nagaraj, by making him MLC despite losing assembly bypolls and with prospects of also making him a Minister, Sharath seems to have realised his chances are bleak in the BJP.

Hence, he is looking forward to secure his political future with the Congress," political workers in Hoskote said.

By inducting him Congress too plans to bank on Sharath and his support base for improving its prospects in Hoskote.

His father and now MP has represented the seat several times in the past from the Janata Dal and also the BJP.

While Sharath is largely seen as a "local boy" in Hosakote, Nagaraj has been projected as an outsider by his opponent, political workers from the constituency said.

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Batumi (Georgia), Jul 26 (PTI): Young Indian International Master Divya Deshmukh held her nerves to hold stalwart Koneru Humpy to a draw in game 1 of the FIDE Women's World Cup final, with both players having their share of opportunities to take the lead here on Saturday.

The draw with black means Humpy, the two-time World Rapid champion, holds a slight edge going in the second and final game under the classical chess rules in the two-game mini-match, and should the deadlock continue, games of shorter duration will be played to determine the winner.

Humpy employed the Queen's gambit accepted as black and it turned out to be a pretty fascinating game right out of the opening as Divya, 19, came up with a piece sacrifice early to deny the black king the right to castle.

Humpy was the first to err and, according to computers, Divya had things under control on the 14th move. However in her bid to recover the extra material, the Nagpur girl, who has secured a place in the Candidates tournament with her sterling performance here, missed a promising continuation.

What followed the exchange of all minor pieces and the ensuing queen and rook endgame gave enough counter play to both players. The game was eventually drawn after Humpy sacrificed her rook to force perpetual checks.

"The game saw an extremely sharp battle with the game ending in a draw in 41 moves. On move 7, Divya made her aggressive intentions clear by offering another pawn,

which looked like home preparation. Humpy made a practical decision of refraining from taking the pawn and a balanced position was reached by move 10 by white," said Grandmaster Pravin Thipsay, an Arjuna awardee and the first Indian to get a chess Grandmaster norm.

"However, instead of developing the undeveloped Knight, Humpy retreated the centralised Knight on move 10, giving huge positional advantage to Divya. Divya could have gained huge positional advantage on the 12th move by moving a rook. However, she chose to play for King side attack by sacrificing a piece instead.

"Humpy, too, erred at this stage and instead of moving the King to Queen side, moved it to the King side. Divya, on move 14, could have obtained a crushing attack by threatening a mate by developing her Queen. Instead she chose to exchange a pair of Bishops first, which enabled Humpy to defend her King by returning the piece," said Thipsay.

"Players thus reached a balanced Queen and two Rooks ending. Divya continued to play ambitiously and tried to attack Humpy’s King but the latter defended accurately and the game was drawn in 41 moves by perpetual check," he added.

In the play-off for the third place, Chinese players Zhongyi Tan, the former women's world champion and top seed Lei Tingjie also decided to split points out of a Queen’s gambit declined game.

The opening raised visions of a close contest between the two but having been knocked out of title race in the previous round, none of them wanted to take any huge risk. It was still a middle game when the players shook hands.

With the top two positions sealed for the Indians, the berth to the next Candidates is also assigned, while the player finishing third will also get an entry to the premier event scheduled for 2026.

Results: Divya Deshmukh (Ind) drew with Koneru Humpy (Ind); Zhongyi Tan (Chn) drew with Tingjie Lei (Chn).