BENGALURU: The one-time ‘guru-shishya’ of state politics who turned bitter foes -- Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda -- spoke over phone on Saturday and exchanged pleasantries over coming together of both Congress and JD(S) in Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP).
This is for the first time since 2005 that both the leaders spoke to each other on political matters. Both had not been on talking terms ever since Siddaramaiah was unceremoniously thrown out of the JD(S) following his differences with Gowda. But both used to exchange pleasantries whenever they happened to meet publicly.
Both the leaders spoke when Mayor Manjunath Reddy along with Bengaluru District Minister Ramalinga Reddy met Gowda at the latter’s Padmanabhanagar residence on Saturday morning. JD(S) MLA Zameer Ahmed Khan, who was also present, reportedly rang the CM from his mobile phone and handed it over to Gowda.
Both spoke very cordially and congratulated each other on having joined hands to outsmart BJP in the BBMP mayoral election held on Friday. Siddaramaiah thanked Gowda for extending unconditional support and assured all cooperation from his side to make the alliance work for five years. Gowda also reciprocated similarly and stressed the need for developing Bengaluru to erase the blame of hijacking the mandate in the BBMP elections. Both the leaders expressed their desire to meet before they concluded their brief conversation. It may be recalled that Gowda has subtly expressed his displeasure over the CM not calling him nor visiting him even though he had extended unconditional support to the Congress.