MYSURU/BENGALURU: JDS MLA from KR Pet--Narayana Gowda stirred a hornet’s nest on Sunday, by saying that he was forced to resign because former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda’s family constantly interfered in the administration.
His statement is true, say insiders, who complain that all of Deve Gowda’s six children interfere in the administration and transfers in one way or the other.
Anasuya, Deve Gowda’s eldest daughter and his ‘muddina magalu’ (beloved daughter) and Shylaja, his younger daughter, have been known to treat MLAs and MLCs “like dirt”, say party insiders.
Besides them, HD Balakrishna, a retired KAS officer, and HD Ramesh also interfere in the day-to-day administration, they say. Complaints of interference against Anasuya are many. She was also considered for KR Pet constituency as the JDS candidate.
Anasuya, incidentally, is the wife of Dr Manjunath, head of Jayadeva Hospital, Bengaluru.
Narayana Gowda alleged that it was they who had prevailed on Nikhil Kumaraswamy to contest the Lok Sabha elections, though he and some others had updated Nikhil and the family about the pitfalls.
He also said that they have no grouse against Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy, brother H D Revanna or Nikhil, but only against his elder daughter, who interfered in the party and also in the local administration.
He said that they had apprised Kumaraswamy and others of the issue on many occasions, but that did not yield much results.
Narayana Gowda said that neither bills on drilling of borewells were cleared, nor sufficient funds released for local development work in Mandya district.
“District in-charge minister C S Puttaraju too did not hear us out on key issues,” he alleged.
“How can we meet the aspirations of the people and develop the constituency when we are not allocated sufficient funds?” he reportedly asked. The JDS MLA said that he had no powers to identify candidates and give party tickets for the municipal elections.
He also flayed the sanctioning of Rs 6 crore to a local leader and his political foe for taking up development work, and Rs 2 crore as a Scheduled Caste Tribe Sub-Plan grant, when loyal workers were neglected.
He charged that the same group that had worked to defeat then Speaker Krishna was conspiring against his leadership in KR Pet and this had upset the honest workers.
Other insiders had reportedly raised the issue of family interference over the years indirectly but had received no relief.