‘Power drunk’ Siddaramaiah needs to be humbled: Deve Gowda

This can be done through our victories in Mysuru and Chamarajanagar LS seats

Janata Dal (S) supremo H.D. Deve Gowda at the BJP, JD(S) coordination meeting in Bengaluru on Friday. | Photo Credit: K. MURALI KUMAR

One of the bitter rivalries in Karnataka politics has resurfaced ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, with former Prime Minister and Janata Dal (Secular) supremo H.D. Deve Gowda saying on Friday that Chief Minister Siddaramaiah should suffer “garvabhanga”(broken pride) with a victory of alliance partnersin Mysuru and Chamarajanagar seats.

Mr. Gowda was speaking at the coordination meeting of Bharatiya Janata Party and JD(S) leaders here on Friday.

“The Chief Minister is filled with the arrogance of power. He asked where is JD(S) . This Deve Gowda, even at the age of 91, has the power to show him where JD(S) is and humble him,” he said. He also alleged that the Congress had “sabotaged” his election from Tumakuru in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections and that the Congress-led State government in Karnataka was “looting the State”.

Mr. Gowda’s tirade against the Chief Minister comes a day after the latter called him a “liar”, speaking at a public rally before D.K. Suresh, Congress candidate, filed his nomination papers from the Bengaluru Rural Lok Sabha seat on Thursday.

“Mr. Deve Gowda recently said he has a great equation with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and he would ensure the Mekedatu project would be implemented if NDA returns to power. Why not use his equation with the Prime Minister and get the project implemented now itself? Mr. Gowda has been telling only lies,” the Chief Minister had said. 

Mr. Siddaramaiah, once a protege of Mr. Gowda, fell out with him in 2006, when the JD(S) expelled him over organising AHINDA conventions. AHINDA is an acronym for minorities, backward classes, and Dalits. The two have turned bitter rivals since then.

The rivalry passed on to the next generation when Mr. Gowda’s son H.D. Kumaraswamy became the Chief Minister in 2006, joining hands with BJP, after toppling the then Congress-JD(S) coalition government in which Mr. Siddaramaiah was the Deputy Chief Minister.

The two camps came together again in 2018 when the Congress and JD(S) formed a coalition government, but it lasted just over a year.