TUMAKURU: Former prime minister and JDS supremo HD Deve Gowda here on Monday faced an embarrassing situation as two women, who are suspected to be Congress workers, created a scene at a meeting of BJP-JDS alliance workers at the Kunchitiga Community Hall.
They shouted slogans against JDS state president HD Kumaraswamy for saying that rural women have lost their way because of guarantees. They managed to enter the hall, waited till some speakers spoke and when Gowda’s turn came to deliver the address, they shouted slogans.
BJP women workers dragged them out of the hall and later the police whisked them away. Gowda, who was taken aback, later delivered his speech.
‘Victim of propaganda’
He said, “It was Sonia Gandhi who made HD Kumaraswamy the chief minister. I had no intention to contest from Tumakuru (in 2019), but Congress brought me here and defeated me. So I will not trust anyone in politics.”
Gowda said he became a victim of a propaganda that he was against the release of Hemavathi river water from Hassan to Tumakuru. “ As many as ten LS constituencies come under the Cauvery basin and if our candidates win we can stand before Prime Minister Narendra Modi and get justice for the state,” he suggested.
Gowda, who lost the 2019 LS polls from the Tumakuru Lok Sabha constituency as the Congress-JDS alliance candidate, has hit the campaign trail for BJP-JDS alliance candidate V Somanna of BJP this time. He has campaigned in Koratagere and is likely to visit Madhugiri on Tuesday, focusing on Vokkaliga community votes.
HDK, DKS spar
The slugfest between HD Kumaraswamy and DK Shivakumar continued, with the former alleging that the latter got lands registered by kidnapping women and blackmailing their parents. He said Shivakumar had blackmailed apartment residents, demanding that they vote for his younger brother and Bangalore Rural Congress candidate D K Suresh, if they want Occupancy Certificate and NOC for new flats. “Shivakumar also threatened that they will get water only if they vote for Suresh,” he alleged. Shivakumar hit back, saying, “Kumaraswamy should also say what is the rate, he may be in the habit of fixing rates and passing the buck to someone else... You got scared and went to Mandya... you will not win the elections...”