BENGALURU: Former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda turned his roadshow in Rajarajeshwari Nagar into a platform to attack BS Yeddyurappa on Saturday. Making a point-to- point rebuttal to Yeddyurappa’s scathing speech against the “father-son duo” in the Karnataka Assembly on Friday, the 85-year-old JD(S) supremo hit back in equal measure. “He (Yeddyurappa) wants to finish off this party ... I will ensure its survival,” Deve Gowda told a cheering crowd.
Yeddyurappa, on the floor of the house during Friday’s trust vote, had told Siddaramaiah that the BJP’s target would be the JD(S) and the “conniving father-son duo”. Responding to allegations levelled by Yeddyurappa, Gowda taunted that neither he nor his family had grabbed government land illegally. “He doesn’t have the guts to even call out my name and shivers in the House while talking about me,” Gowda said mimicking Yeddyurappa. The JD(S) supremo recalled how BJP leaders Shobha Karandlaje and Ramachandra Gowda had approached him after the rift in BJP in 2013.
“The language he has used against us pains me. He (Yeddyurappa), being the opposition leader, is amusing and painful at the same time,” Gowda said appealing to the voters to choose his candidate over the Congress and BJP. The Rajarajeshwari Nagar constituency is the JD(S)’ best shot at winning its third seat in Bengaluru. Gowda, who had extensively campaigned for his party for the Assembly elections, hit the roads on Saturday to seek votes for Ramachandrappa, the party’s candidate.
Attacks on Yeddyurappa flew high and fast even as the BJP state president was campaigning for his party candidate Muniraju Gowda in the same constituency. Gowda’s criticism of Yeddyurappa comes on the day Chief minister Kumaraswamy chided the BJP leader for his bandh call on Monday. “There is no question of backtracking on my promise of loan waiver. I have to keep the State’s financial status in mind,” Kumaraswamy said in response to Yeddyurappa’s bandh call.