BENGALURU: JD(S) supremo H D Deve Gowda on Tuesday denied that his son and party president H D Kumaraswamy owned 200 acres of land as alleged by activist S R Hiremath recently.
Addressing a press conference, Deve Gowda said that Kumaraswamy owned about 80 acres and nothing more than that. Gowda fumed that Hiremath was trying to rake up issues that did not exist and said that the government had conducted inquiries into such allegations but found nothing.
“No one could find any irregularities. Not just Kumaraswamy, other members of my family have also been investigated. Hegde, Bangarappa and Yeddyurappa have all had inquiries conducted. The land in Ketaganahalli was sold in 1982. We have no such land. This is another attempt to finish us politically,” Deve Gowda said.
He also said that once Kumaraswamy returns from the US, they would embark on revitalising the core committee and that the new JD(S) office will be inaugurated after the Sankranti festival next year.
On rumours of former minister Srinivasa Prasad joining BJP, Gowda mocked that BJP was quick to welcome newcomers with a lot of fanfare but there were several examples to see the poor fate suffered by such people after they joined BJP.
Meanwhile, Deve Gowda has written to the chief minister seeking his intervention in the ongoing tussle between former employees and management at Bosch. Deve Gowda said that the retrenched employees must be accommodated elsewhere and a suitable compensation package should be allotted to them from the company.
“The company was given land from the government and other facilities like electricity and water at reduced rates. This move of Bosch to remove 263 workers and 650 other workers on the job has hurt them economically and mentally. The CM should attempt to resolve this issue and prevent a confrontation between the workers and management,” he said.