Bengaluru: ‘Gram Vastavya’, the village stay. This was the one programme that won Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy plaudits from his peers and the affection of the village-dweller. But it may be the one thing he may not be able to do anymore. Not that is, if his father and the JD(S) patriarch has anything to do with it.
H.D. Deve Gowda gave it the thumbs down on Saturday saying clearly that his son, the chief minister works almost 18 hours a day and has no time left for a ‘Gram Vastavya’.
It may be mentioned here that Mr Kumraswamy had promised to do ‘Gram Vastavya’ frequently to understand problems of villages and to resolve them on the spot. Speaking at a function organised by his party to felicitate the CM here on Saturday, Mr Gowda also said that the responsibility on ministers to do a good job was huge, but they must attend office for an hour or two every afternoon and work alongside the chief minister.
He also admitted that the JD(S) hopes of winning at least 100 seats was belied as the people did not support the party, while also saying that some of the responsibility for failing to rally the electorate fell on the shoulders of party workers who were unable to educate the voters about the number of programs that had been implemented by the previous JD(S) government.
He admitted that running a coalition government was not easy. “The JD(S) accepted the support of Congress to keep the communal BJP out of power. Under these circumstances, we cannot ignore the Congress Party as well as BJP which has 104 members. The bigger responsibility is on Mr Kumaraswamy to run this coalition government,” the former PM said.
