Former Minister G.T. Deve Gowda, who had been maintaining a distance with his party leadership ever since the collapse of the Congress-JD (S) coalition in the State, shared the dais with former Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy at the Kempe Gowda Jayanti function at Hunsur, near here, on Friday.
By sharing the dais with Mr. Kumaraswamy, M.r Gowda appeared to have patched up with the party leadership against whom he was nursing a grouse, sparking off speculation over the possibility of him continuing in the JD (S).
Mr. Gowda had publicly said he had discussed with Congress leaders Siddaramaiah and D.K. Shivakumar the possibility of him joining their party. However, he had put a condition that the party should field him as well as his on Harish Gowda.
Ever since the Congress national leadership proposed to implement the one family, one ticket rule except for the ones who had at least five years of party work, there has been no progress on Mr. Gowda’s proposal to join the Congress.
When reporters asked Mr. Kumaraswamy about Mr. Gowda, the former said the latter had always been in touch with him.