BANGALORE: Frustrated JD(S) legislators are planning to meet party national president H D Deve Gowda to get clarity on their future course of action.
At a meeting on Monday night, former ministers M C Nanaiah, Basavaraj Horatti and N Cheluvarayaswamy, along with Deputy Chairman in the Legislative Council Puttanna and MLA H C Balakrishna, are said to have discussed the issues that need to be raised with Gowda. They had walked out of the JD(S) meet on Monday soon after Gowda’s speech.
Denying any political significance to their action, Cheluvarayaswamy told Express that they were “feeling hungry and came out for lunch.” Later in the day, the leaders invited a few other MLAs, including B Z Zameer Ahamed Khan, to discuss the fallout of the Monday meeting. But none of them turned up. “We were all confused and didn’t know what to do as mixed signals were sent out by both Gowda and H D Kumaraswamy,” he said.
Gowda had asked some leaders to either build the party or quit instead of hobnobbing with rival parties.
“All that we are asking is clarity on the next course of action. We expected our leader Gowda to direct everyone to actively involve themselves in building the party instead of spitting fire,” he said, adding that they will soon meet again and decide on meeting Gowda. A section of leaders have been airing their views in public much to the chagrin of the party patriarch.
“We were promised that everyone will be involved in party building activities at the introspection meet in Sri Lanka. But there appears to be no sign of it,” one of the dissatisfied leaders said.
Kumaraswamy said he was not aware of any such meeting. “Everything will be settled soon,” he said. ENS