BENGALURU: They were not in touch for a decade and were constantly lunging at each other’s jugular, but on Saturday Chief Minister Siddaramaiah dialed his mentor-turned-adversary, H.D. Deve Gowda, to thank him for the support offered by his party corporators which helped the ruling Congress thwart the BJP from regaining control of BBMP.
In fact, Mr Siddaramaiah had dismissed JD (S) as irrelevant in the run-up to BBMP polls, prompting a retort by Mr Deve Gowda that had he not backed the former for deputy chief minister’s post in 2004, the Kuruba strongman could never have made it as Chief Minister in 2013.
Such animosity, however, was put aside as their supporters worked the phones to ensure that candidates of Congress and JD (S) win elections to posts of Mayor and deputy Mayor on Friday.
Sources in JD(S) confirmed the conversation between these two leaders saying “Mr Siddaramaiah called Mr Gowda on his personal mobile phone around 10.30 am. He thanked Mr Gowda after enquiring about Mr Gowda’s health.”
On his part, Mr Gowda explained in detail about why he decided to back the Congress in BBMP and said “now it is left to you to fix the city’s problems.” Mr Gowda also told Mr Siddaramaiah to be in touch with his son and state JD(S) president H.D. Kumaraswamy and discuss with him any major decisions pertaining to the city.
Later, mayor Manjunath Reddy called on Mr Gowda and sought his guidance for running the administration at BBMP.
