Arakalgud MLA A. Manju of the JD(S) has said he wishes former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda to contest for the Hassan Lok Sabha seat in the coming elections.
Speaking to press persons in Hassan on Friday, Mr. Manju said he had already appealed to Deve Gowda in a party meeting to contest from Hassan. “This will be his last election. I have been requesting him to contest from Hassan,” he said.
Mr. Manju also defended the party’s decision to remove C.M. Ibrahim from the position as the party’s State president. “The party had to take that decision after Ibrahim opposed an alliance with the NDA. Now H.D. Kumaraswamy has been appointed president,” he said.
On the alliance with the BJP, Manju said that in the past, the Janata Dal had also joined hands with the BJP. “An alliance is to strengthen the party’s base. However, just because we have an alliance, the party will not give up its ideology of secularism,” he said.
The MLA said Ibrahim himself took part in several meetings that discussed the alliance. He (Ibrahim) did not oppose an alliance with the BJP. “If he was against the alliance, he should have discussed it in the meetings itself. I too had opposed the alliance in the beginning. But now I have accepted it,” he said.
