Deve Gowda, Siddaramaiah, appeal to JD(S), Congress leaders to stay united

Mysuru: JD(S) supremo , H D Deve Gowda on Friday appealed to his party’s leaders in Mysuru to forget their differences with the local Congress leaders and stay united for the victory of its candidate from the Mysuru-Kodagu constituency this Lok Sabha poll.

“If we unite and work honestly, I am sure the Congress candidate can win,” he said, addressing a crowd of over 30, 000 at a joint rally of the parties to campaign for Mysuru-Kodagu candidate, C H Vijayshankar of the Congress.

Noting that former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and he had travelled together for the past four days, he said such unity was essential to weaken the “communal” party. “The BJP is detrimental to the nation and the youth supporting Modi need to understand this and not be carried by the fake news on social media,” he stressed.

In his address, Mr Siddaramaiah said there was nothing special about Mr Deve Gowda and he travelling together for the past four days as the two parties needed to stay united to fight the communal forces in the country. “There is no protection for backward classes in the Modi government. BJP candidate, Tejasvi Surya says Ambedkar statues must be demolished and the Constitution should be burnt. Has he said this without the permission of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP natonal president, Amit Shah? This reveals the mindset of the BJP. He (Modi) will become Hitler if he becomes Prime Minister again and there will be no more elections,” he warned.

Mocking the BJP’s promise of “ achche din” he said they did not come for the poor and backward classes but for Mr Amit Shah and others. “You (Modi) call yourself chowkidar, but allowed Vijay Mallya, Nirav Modi to get away. You are killing industries like BSNL and letting Ambani, Adani to live. The BJP also didn’t grant special funds for Kodagu (when it was hit by floods and landslides). What do you have to say to this Pratap Simha?” he asked, challenging the sitting BJP MP of the constituency.

As for the BJP’s claim that the coalition government in the state would collapse, he alleged that it had offered Rs 25 to Rs 30 crore each to 20 MLAs of the coalition. “Although we have complained about it, no one is raiding BJP leaders. No one can topple the coalition government in the state,” he declared.

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