Bengaluru: JD(S) supremo H D Deve Gowda on Monday dismissed CM Siddaramaiah's promise of extending reservation to 70 per cent as mere “nonsense,” contending that the Supreme Court would never allow this.
“Actually extending reservation to 70 per cent is not as easy as talking about it from a political platform,” he added caustically. Mr Gowda also ridiculed both the Congress and BJP’s talk of contributing to social justice. “I am ready for a debate on this with Mrs Sonia Gandhi and Mr Narendra Modi. We will talk about what they have done and what we have done,” he added. Declaring that his party would win as many seats as the Congress and BJP in Bengaluru, he said he didn’t care that the Congress had taken away two of his three MLAs.
“I don't care what they do. I will not have an alliance with either the Congress or the BJP. I am going to fight the election based on my 60 years of political experience,” he asserted. Also, noting that a lot of work needed to be done in Bengaluru city, he regretted that there was talk about saving its lakes for a few days and then it had died down. “Going by the Laxman Rao committee report 288 lakes in Bengaluru need to be saved,” he pointed out.
Taking a dig at the PM, Mr Gowda observed that “the man, who did not visit Orissa during the tsunami, had all the time in the world to visit Andhra Pradesh at Mr Chandrababu Naidu’s invitation.” He went on to add, “Yesterday while in Gujarat, Modi announced 5,800 km of highways. Why is that? Do people in Karnataka not pay tax? He is damaging the federal structure of the country by his behaviour.”
