Mid-term polls to be held in Karnataka: HD Deve Gowda
Former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda on Friday said mid-term polls are imminent in Karnataka. Deve Gowda's statement came as a clear sign that the fragile JD(S)-Congress alliance in Karnataka is about to get severed.
Alluding to the comments made by Congress leaders, the former prime minister said we were promised support for five years but everyone can see the behaviour now.
Deve Gowda also claimed that the coalition in Karnataka was formed due to pressure by the Congress.
"I was the glue for the coalition in Karnataka. Sonia and Rahul Gandhi sent Ghulam Nabi Azad and Ashok Gehlot to Bangalore. While having a discussion, I told them the pain of the coalition I had experienced before. I told them I don't need it [coalition]," Deve Gowda told media.
Commenting on the development, the former prime minister also said he had suggested Mallikarjun Kharge's name for the post of the chief minister.
He said he had asked Rahul Gandhi to make Mallikarjun Kharge the chief minister.
However, Ghulam Nabi Azad later told Deve Gowda the Congress top boss wanted HD Kumaraswamy to be the chief minister, a demand HD Deve Gowda had to agree with.
In order to keep the single largest party out of order, the Congress had tied up with the JD(S) after the elections in Karnataka in 2018.
Congress-JD(S) alliance came cropper in the Lok Sabha elections, with them winning only two out of the 28 seats. Even Deve Gowda lost from Tumkur. Their has been constant murmur regarding political survival of the government after the Lok Sabha elections.
Former prime minister HD Deve Gowda Thursday said he told Congress president Rahul Gandhi that he has been hurt by the repeated public utterances of some leaders of the grand old party and his JD(S) about the coalition government in Karnataka.
Gowda said he told Gandhi, "From day one I am watching, I'm hurt very badly. This is the first time I am telling you. You take a decision. Please request all your Karnataka leaders (to not speak in public about the government)."
Asked about senior Congress leader Siddaramaiah's reported remarks after meeting Gandhi on Wednesday that the coalition is not working well and the party would have performed better if it had contested the elections alone, Gowda said, "I don't want to react now; there is ample time."
On some leaders expressing the view that the alliance was hurting both the parties, the JD(S) chief said the coalition was not his party's idea but of Gandhi, UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad.
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