JDS chief HD Deve Gowda on Friday (October 20) clarified that he never said that the ruling Left party in Kerala supported the party’s tie-up with the BJP in Karnataka, and said that there is some confusion in CPI(M) in this regard.
"There is some confusion about my statement on the CPI(M). My Communist friends do not seem to have followed what I said nor the context in which I said," Gowda posted on X, formerly Twitter.
"I only said my party unit in Kerala is getting along with the LDF government as things within my party units outside Karnataka remain unresolved after our alliance with the BJP. I wish CPI(M) leaders had chosen their words better or had sought clarification," the JD(S) patriarch said.
Gowda had earlier said while removing Karnataka JD(S) president CM Ibrahim from the state working committee by dissolving it for his rebellious remarks over his party’s alliance with the BJP, “Kerala's Left government's Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has given full concurrence to move forward in Karnataka with the BJP to save the party. This is the position.”
Kerala CM rejects claims
However, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Friday rejected Gowda’s claim that he had approved of Kerala’s LDF partner JD(S) forging an alliance with the BJP in Karnataka, and termed it “baseless and devoid of truth".
He even asked the former prime minister to correct his statement.
In a strongly worded statement, Vijayan said the JD(S) state unit had made it clear that they were categorically against the association with the BJP and that they would stand strong with the Left Front in Kerala.
"This is not the first time Deve Gowda is joining hands with the BJP. We all remember 2006, when JD(S) joined the BJP. He left this ideology and associated with the BJP to get a ministerial post for his son," Vijayan said.
(With PTI inputs)
