BENGALURU: In what could be the first sign of JDS and Congress not being a single entity anymore, JDS supremo H D Deve Gowda on Sunday said Siddaramaiah will be the leader of the opposition. Highlighting that his former protege was the leader of Congress - the second-largest party in the House - and that his son and former Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy was only the leader of JDS legislative party, Deve Gowda put the onus of deciding the future of the coalition on Congress central leadership.
“Kumaraswamy had agreed to become the Chief Minister on the insistence of Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi. The future (of the alliance) will depend on whatever the high command (Congress) will decide,” Gowda told reporters.
Not just JDS, Congress too has remained non-committal on the coalition ever since the collapse of the H D Kumaraswamy-led government last week. A teary-eyed Deve Gowda regretted that he could not do much for hardworking party workers in the last 14 months. “We were in difficult times. I could not give posts or positions to loyal party workers who fought for me,” Gowda said wiping off tears.
The JDS has decided to pointedly focus on constituencies of rebel MLAs - Gopalaiah, Muniratna, S T Somashekhar and Byrati Basavraj in Bengaluru to appeal to voters and strengthen their cadre base. On Sunday, Gowda was addressing workers of Mahalakshmi Layout and Yeshwanthpur in Bengaluru.