JD(S) leaders including former Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy trained their guns on estranged partyman and Chamundeshwari Assembly MLA G.T. Deve Gowda at an election campaign meeting in Mysuru on Saturday.
Mr Gowda, who continues to remain a JD(S) MLA, has maintained a distance from the party leadership for more than two years now, but is cosying up to former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and announced his plans to join the Congress before the next Assembly elections.
Referring to claims that Mr. Gowda had warned party workers from Chamundeshwari against attending the JD(S) meeting in Mysuru on Saturday as part of the campaign to seek votes for C.N. Manje Gowda, the party candidate in ensuing elections to Legislative Council, Mr Kumaraswamy said workers cannot be cowed down by such threats. They have already proved several times earlier that they cannot be browbeaten by such threats, he added.
He said the JD(S) workers of Chamundeshwari have stood by the party in the most testing times and people from all sections of the society have showered their blessings on him.
While the party had suffered reverses in the recent by-elections to the Assembly, Mr. Kumaraswamy said he was hopeful that the people of Chamundeshwari will stand by the party and ensure the victory of Mr. Manje Gowda in the elections to the Legislative Council, which will be a prelude to the Assembly elections in 2023.
Former Minister S.R. Mahesh, who also addressed the gathering, called upon the members of gram panchayats and other urban and rural local bodies to cast their first preferential vote in favour of Mr. Manje Gowda.
He said that Mr. Manje Gowda, unlike the Congress and BJP candidates, was well-versed with the issues faced by the elected representatives of the local bodies as he himself had served as one.
Speaking at the meeting, JD(S) leader Mavinahalli Sidde Gowda alleged that Mr. G.T. Deve Gowda was warning gram panchayat members from Chamundeshwari against attending the JD(S) meeting. He also claimed that Mr. Gowda had asked the gram panchayat members against casting their votes in favour of the JD(S) candidate.
Seeking to remind Mr. Gowda about his rout in the elections when he joined the BJP, Mr. Sidde Gowda said Mr. Gowda was re-elected after he returned to the JD(S). He also sought to remind Mr Gowda that Mr Kumaraswamy had campaigned for him in Chamundeshwari even though his health did not permit him.
