Tell Congress leaders not to make public statements: Gowda to Rahul

H.D. Deve Gowda at a press meet in Bengaluru on Thursday.

The former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda on Thursday said he had appealed to All-India Congress Committee president Rahul Gandhi, during his recent meeting, to direct Congress leaders in Karnataka against issuing statements that would prove detrimental to the survival of the coalition government in public.

Speaking to presspersons here, he reiterated that there was no threat to the coalition government in Karnataka. Mr. Gowda said the JD(S) had sacrificed its share of the Cabinet berth for the survival of government and was planning to give up top posts of the prominent boards and corporations, if needed.

“I have asked Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy not to bargain for boards and corporations, after sacrificing the Cabinet berth,” he said.

Talking about his attempts to strengthen the party at the grass-roots level, he said he had organised a programme on Friday to felicitate those who contested the local body elections and lost, on the lines of felicitating those who had won.

This will instil confidence among party workers and leaders that the leadership would not differentiate between a loser and a winner, he added.

On ‘one nation, one poll’

Speaking on the ‘one nation, one election’ idea mooted by the NDA government, Mr. Gowda said there were disadvantages in holding simultaneous polls to the Lok Sabha and the State Assemblies.

“The electorate is likely to get confused as they have to exercise their franchise simultaneously to the Lok Sabha and the Legislative Assembly in one polling booth,” he said.

Mr. Gowda said there were two sets of opinions among the regional parties that were not part of the NDA. While one section had welcomed the move, the other had expressed its apprehension.

“I am also apprehensive of the move proving counterproductive because of the confusion. The electorate is not mature enough to face simultaneous polls,” Mr. Gowda said.