BENGALURU: Former prime minister HD Deve Gowda, who had admitted that he met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah with regard to forging a pre-poll alliance between the JDS and BJP for the 2024 General Election, will be attending the five-day special session of both the Houses of Parliament starting Monday.
He wished Modi on his birthday on ‘X’, before landing in New Delhi.
”My warm birthday greetings to Prime Minister @narendramodi on his 73rd birthday. May lord almighty give him the best of health to serve the nation(sic),” he posted.
Gowda had also taken part in the inauguration of the new Parliament Bhavan on May 28.
Now, his visit is crucial with regard to the alliance and the talks that he himself claimed to have had with Modi and Shah.
“It is true that I met the two. Former chief minister HD Kumaraswamy will hold further talks over seat sharing,” he stated, defending the move to join hands with the saffron party, with which he had maintained a distance for decades.
“In order to save the regional party, it was inevitable when Kumaraswamy formed a government with BJP in 2006. Now also, it is inevitable,” he stated.
According to sources, Kumaraswamy is likely to rush to the national capital on Wednesday for further talks on the alliance. Since Gowda cannot visit New Delhi often due to his poor health, the alliance deal might be struck in his present visit itself, sources added.
The JDS leadership may seek five seats including Hassan, Mandya, Bengaluru Rural, Kolar and Chikkaballapur. After the negotiations, the JDS may settle for four. It is interesting to see if the BJP top leadership insists on Gowda contesting the 2024 Lok Sabha polls or not. In 2019, Gowda lost from Tumakuru as a JDS-Congress candidate.