Janata Dal (Secular) national president H.D. Deve Gowda on Thursday appealed to party workers to help the party win at least 15 Lok Sabha seats so that it can undo the injustice done to Karnataka in the sharing of river waters and other matters.
Addressing party workers here, Mr. Gowda said the JD(S) has fielded the most number of women candidates — Nandini Alva from Bangalore Central, Ruth Manorama from Bangalore South and Geetha Shivarajkumar from Shimoga — as against two from the Congress and one from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Both national parties have not ensured justice to Karnataka and it is time for the emergence of a strong regional party, he said, pointing out that Tamil Nadu has achieved tremendous growth. He said he has been working relentlessly for the party — going to bed at 3 a.m. and getting up at 6 p.m. Mr. Gowda said he was prepared to campaign wherever the cadres want him to. Mr. Deve Gowda was critical of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah for addressing Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi in a scathing manner and termed it politics of bad state.
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Addressing party workers here, Mr. Gowda said, “I did not directly attack any leader, including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress president Sonia Gandhi or BJP leaders A.B. Vajpayee or L.K. Advani. However, I used to criticise political parties for their misdeeds.” Speaking on the occasion, party’s Bangalore South candidate Ruth Manorama said she had been to the JD(S) office in 1994 to train women members on representation for women. They fought and got their rightful representation, she said. Now that she is the party candidate, she said she was well aware of the difference between social service [which she has been doing] and politics and appealed to the cadres to strongly back all the candidates.
Party candidates for Bangalore Central Nandini Alva, Bangalore North Abdul Azeem and Bangalore Rural R. Prabhakara Reddy were present.