Former Minister and JD(S) leader S.R. Mahesh on Saturday expressed optimism that party MLA representing Chamundeshwari Assembly segment in Mysuru G.T. Deve Gowda will continue in the party.
Speaking to reporters here, Mr. Mahesh said the continuation would be beneficial not only for the party, but also to Mr. Gowda himself. “There are two more years for the next Assembly elections. I hope all the confusion will be cleared by then and he will continue in the party”, he said.
Mr. Gowda had recently disclosed that he was in talks with former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) President D.K. Shivakumar to join the Congress.
Mr. Mahesh, the JD(S) MLA representing K.R. Nagar, appealed to him to resume participating in the party activities for the sake of thousands of party workers in the region.
Referring to Mr. Gowda’s complaint that the party was promoting Mr. Mahesh at his (Mr. Gowda’s expense) in the party, the K.R. Nagar MLA said he was ready to retire from politics if it were to satisfy Mr. Gowda. “I will go abroad during the next elections”, he said while appealing to Mr. Gowda to desist from taking such hasty decisions.
Asked if JD(S) leader and former Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy was in favour of retaining Mr. Gowda in the party, he said JD (S) leaders from Mandya district including C.S. Puttaraju would not have called on Mr. Gowda recently had Mr. Kumaraswamy not been in favour of retaining him in the party. Also, former Prime Minister and JD(S) patriarch H.D. Deve Gowda would not have called Mr. Gowda over phone and ask him to remain in the party if Mr. Kumaraswamy was not favour his continuation in the party, Mr. Mahesh added.
To a question, Mr. Mahesh admitted that one of the reason for the differences between JD(S) and Congress during the recent mid-term Mayoral polls was the efforts to ‘demoralise’ the party by Congress, which was reportedly wooing Mr. Gowda.
Social media
Mr. Mahesh endorsed Mysuru MP Pratap Simha’s call for clamping down upon the social media fan pages of government officials including IAS/IPS officers.
Fielding queries, Mr. Mahesh he would shortly write to the Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting as well as the Chief Minister to bar government officials from having their fan pages on social media.
“Some officials are publicity-seekers”, Mr Mahesh said. “They are government officials, who are doing their duty. What is the need for them to have fan pages?”, he questioned while adding that elected representatives like him need it because they have to go back to the people for votes during every election.
