BENGALURU: On the day the Congress-JDS government released a booklet of its achievements in the past one year, JDS supremo HD Deve Gowda said that his party never wanted the coalition and that it was the Congress that approached them to form the government.
Deve Gowda said his only appeal to AICC president Rahul Gandhi was to ensure that nobody speaks ill of the coalition in public despite differences. In a press conference, his very first post the Lok Sabha polls, on Thursday, Devegowda announced his plans to rebuild the party and hold a series of meetings. This comes across as an effort by the JDS to reach out to its disgruntled leaders.
“Our party will hold a meeting of all members on Friday and as I had announced earlier, those who are committed, will be felicitated. I have also called a meeting of leaders from backward classes to discuss state president H Vishwanath’s resignation.
We urged him to reconsider,” said Dev Gowda. This move comes at a time when the party has neither inducted new MLAs into the cabinet nor appointed chiefs of boards and corporations except MLC Sharavana TA for the Arya-Vyshya Development Board.
When asked about dissent brewing in both parties, Devegowda acknowledged that some leaders felt the coalition was bad for both parties but insisted that it was the Congress’ idea all along. Gowda added that accommodating two independent MLAs to stabilise the government was Siddaramaiah’s idea but Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy had agreed to it.
“It was Rahul Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi and Ghulam Nabi Azad. I told them we didn’t want this but Parameshwara and Muniyappa approached us. Kharge told me that he had been ordered to ensure this happens,” Gowda said. The statement comes a day after Kumaraswamy once again claimed that he was suffering even as CM but could not speak of it publicly.
A day after PM Modi called for an all-party meeting to discuss the ‘One Nation One Election’ policy, Devegowda said that the concept would confuse voters. “The biggest disadvantage of the policy according to me is the confusion it would create. Multiple EVMs in the same polling booth for national and state elections will confuse voters,” he said.