MYSURU: With Chamundeshwari MLA GT Devegowda publicly disclosing his plans to quit Janata Dal Secular and join Congress, former chief minister and JDS leader HD Kumaraswamy on Sunday, October 24, 2021, kept everyone guessing over his next move with regards to the senior MLA. At an interaction, Kumaraswamy categorically said that it is left to Devegowda to take a decision on whether to continue in the JDS or not.
Devegowda, who defeated Siddaramaiah in Chamundeshwari in the 2018 Assembly polls, has earlier said that he is being sidelined in JDS. Asked if he would talk to Devegowda to convince him to stay in JDS, Kumaraswamy said, “I am not in touch with him for the last two years. The question of talking to him comes only when he decides to stay in the party.”
Commenting on his son Nikhil Gowda meeting Devegowda’s son Harish in Mysuru recently, Kumaraswamy said, “They are good friends and I am not aware of anything else.” Kumaraswamy, a bitter critic of Opposition leader Siddaramaiah, said the latter is limited to only giving speeches.
“Siddaramaiah claims to have built JDS in the past. But he must introspect who worked on the ground after the Janata Parivar split. The money I earned from film distribution was spent on building the party and for Cauvery protests. We organised people, put up banners and Siddaramaiah only gave speeches. He was limited to speeches. When he lost elections and decided to quit politics, it was my father HD Deve Gowda who convinced him to continue in electoral politics,” Kumaraswamy added.
Hitting out at Siddaramaiah for calling JDS a family party, HD Kumaraswamy asked why the former brought his younger son, who was a doctor, into politics and made him contest from Varuna.
“Is fielding your son not family politics,” he asked. On Siddaramaiah’s comments on JDS fielding minority candidates in the bypolls in Hanagal and Sindagi, Kumaraswamy said Siddaramaiah should have fielded a Muslim in Chamundeshwari instead of contesting the election. He said that he and his party workers have strengthened the party from the scratch and not Siddaramaiah, who was upset with not having his photo in the publicity material.