Former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda on Tuesday blamed the opposition by a group of local Congress leaders for him not being invited to the meeting of the Opposition leaders in Bengaluru earlier this month.
“One group of the local Congress leaders threatened to boycott the Opposition leaders’ meet if I attended the event,” Mr. Gowda claimed at a press conference in Bengaluru on Tuesday.
“Nitish Kumar is my friend. When he suggested that I should be invited, a group in the Congress local unit threatened to boycott the event if I attend it,” he alleged. But he refused to divulge details on who opposed his participation. He said that veteran leader Sharad Pawar, who attended the Opposition leaders’ meeting, was going to support NDA.
Ridiculing the secular nature of the Congress, Mr. Gowda alleged that the Congress becomes secular at “an opportune time, but otherwise shuns secularism.” He referred to the media reports suggesting that the Congress had joined hands with the BJP in Mandya.
Referring to the criticism that JD(S) had compromised its secular principles by joining hands with the BJP, Mr. Gowda pointed out that the first ever non-Congress government that was formed in the State in 1983 led by Chief Minister Ramakrishna Hegde had the support of 16 BJP MLAs. “Was Mr. Siddaramaiah not the president of Kannada Kaavalu Samithi in the same government that had the support of 18 BJP MLAs?” he wondered. He recalled that he too was the Minister for Public Works in the same government. Mr. Hegde had later become Commerce Minister in the NDA government at the Centre.
No alliance with anyone
Replying to queries on whether the JD(S) would have an alliance with the BJP for the Lok Sabha polls, he said, “We will not have alliance with anyone for the LS polls. We will face the polls alone.”
When asked if the JD(S) has already tied-up with the BJP in the State legislature as leaders of both the parties had been going together, Mr. Gowda sought to downplay it by describing it as a mere “floor arrangement” which was there earlier too with different parties.
“Speculations in this regard would end after the BJP appoints its State president and leader of the Opposition,” he said, while claiming that the BJP had started the process. He asked the media to stop speculating about any possibility of JD(S) having tie-up with BJP. He said his party would take a call on the number of Lok Sabha seats to be contested by it depending on the feedback by its leaders and cadre.
Mr. Gowda announced that senior leader G.T. Deve Gowda would head a committee to take a call on the ways of strengthening the party through organising conventions and tour programmes.
