BENGALURU: JD(S) patriarch H.D. Deve Gowda disclosed on Saturday that Prime Minister Narendra Modi prevailed upon him not to quit Lok Sabha following the BJP’s victory in parliamentary polls held in 2014.
At a meet-the-press programme organised by Press Club of Bengaluru here, he said “In the run to 2014 parliament elections, I had taken a vow that I would retire from politics if the BJP were voted to power. But things happened exactly the same way. I keep my promise, I decided to resign. However, Mr Modi persuaded me not to resign from Lok Sabha.”
Turning philosophical off-and-on during the interaction, Mr Gowda wondered why Chief Minister Siddaramaiah alone was targeting him.
“Dr H.C. Mahadevappa, R.V. Deshpande, and many others who were part of the Janata Parivar are in Congress now. They are not speaking against me. Why only Mr Siddaramaiah? I think he still nurses a grudge that I did not make him the Chief Minister. When I left Karnataka. There were four Kuruba MLAs and about 35 Lingayat MLAs in the Assembly. Now, you tell me, what would have happened under such circumstances if I had not supported Mr J.H. Patel (for the CM’s post)?” he asked, adding “God will decide the fate of those who indulge in caste politics, and I do not want say anything more.”
Reiterating that he would not contest elections, he said by the time he completes his current term in Lok Sabha, he would be 87, and therefore not proper on his part to enter the fray.
Answering a question on why his son and former chief minister H.D. Kumaraswamy could afford to spend Rs 60 crores on a movie to launch his son Nikhil Gowda’s career at a time when the party was operating out of a rented shed in Bengaluru, Mr Gowda remarked “If we had Rs 60 crores with us, do you think the income tax department, Lokayukta and other agencies would have kept quiet? The producers are investing money.”
