BENGALURU: Just 10 months back, they were considered archetypal enemies, sharing a troubled relationship akin to India-Pakistan and now, they are considered to be the best of friends, like India-Bhutan. Politics makes for surprising friendships. Once bitter foes, HD Deve Gowda and Siddaramaiah have metamorphosed into the best of friends and have started addressing rallies together, the first of which was held in Bangalore North, to promote the coalition candidate Krishna Byre Gowda, symbolically on the eve of Ugadi - the traditional new year in Karnataka.
At stake in the five planned rallies are the victories of Krishna Byre Gowda, Rizwan Arshad, BK Hariprasad, CH Vijayshankar, all Congress candidates and Nikhil Kumar in Mandya, Prajwal in Hassan and Deve Gowda himself in Tumkur. But in many ways these rallies are important for setting a ‘Dosti narrative,’ for all the 28 constituencies where they are locked in a straight fight with the BJP.
On Friday, Deve Gowda and Siddaramaiah sat side-by-side on the same stage, holding hands indulging in what all coalition partners do, “BJP Bashing.’’ These rallies have been arranged to convince the voter that the allies even if ‘beset with differences,’ mean business. Deve Gowda accused the media of siding with Modi and not questioning his contribution to Bengaluru.
“How many times has he visited Bengaluru? The growth of Bengaluru as the IT city is our work, Siddaramaiah was finance minister, I am the one who worked for it,” he claimed. Siddaramaiah said, “I had requested Mr Deve Gowda to contest from here. But when he declined and decided to contest from Tumkur, I urged Krishna Byre Gowda to contest from here. Krishna Byre Gowda was not interested but all MLAs said only he can defeat DV Sadananda Gowda.”
Speaking in his traditional fashion, Siddaramaiah took a swipe at Sadananda Gowda. “He only smiles, he has done no work. He was ineffective as the Railway Minister,” he said. Earlier, in a rally in Pulakeshinagar, MLA Akhanda Srinivas Murthy said that he would work to help Krishna Byre Gowda win by a margin of over one lakh votes. Byre Gowda said, “When BJP candidates come to seek your votes, you have to carry a bag, for the Rs 15 lakh that Modi promised every voter. They have not given money but snatched it from the people.”