Deve Gowda: JD-S not family enterprise, has helped many grow

Bengaluru Faced with criticism of reducing JDS to a family enterprise former prime minister and JDS supremo H D Deve Gowda Sunday asserted the notion was wrong as the party helped many grow including exchief minister and Congress strongman SiddaramaiahBlowing a bugle for the upcoming Lok Sabha election from his constituency and JDS stronghold of Hassan district the 86yearold Gowda said Our critics often say JDS is the political party of Deve Gowdas family Have a look at these facts as wellWe have made A H Vishwanath state president Prior to that I went to Krishnappas house asking him to join our party and observed fast for it It JDS is not Deve Gowda family Didnt we give prominent positions to Siddaramaiah C M Ibrahim Merajuddin PatelGowda lamented that an impression has been created that the JDS belonged to Deve Gowda family as his son H D Kumaraswamy was made the chief minister He clarified that the pressure to make his son chief minister came from Congress and he could not help but bow to the wishThere was a big news that it was a fatherson enterprise Is it so easy to convince all the 37 MLAs to make him Kumaraswamy chief minister They Congress came from Delhi and insisted me to give my approval An hourlong discussion ensued because I did not agree for it Finally they forced me to accept it the former prime minister saidMaking an appeal to the party workers to work towards making the JDS strong Gowda asked them to ponder over the future of the party if it is not in powerPlease dont take it otherwise There is no need to believe that we can resort to anything for power How to save this party Today we have a coalition government but what will happen tomorrow said GowdaThe event also witnessed JDS leaders attacking their coalition partner in the government the Congress The two parties have agreed to fight to the upcoming Lok Sabha election togetherHowever the two parties have not yet reached a consensus over sharing of seats Instances of bickering often come to fore between the alliance partners as was seen at Hassan on SundayIn an angry rebuttal to Congress Arakalgud MLA A T Ramaswamy said the JDS was ready to sit in the opposition rather than tolerating the arrogant behaviour of CongressThe arrogant statement that we are twice your size and you have to listen to us must go I would like to say it absolute clearly that if this arrogance damages the interests of farmers and poor people we will not think twice to sit in the opposition said RamaswamyThe JDS MLA warned Congress that the party was under no pressure to run the administration by appeasing itHe urged the party workers to gear up to see a Kannadiga unfurling the tricolour from the Red Fort as had happened in 1998 when Deve Gowda became the prime ministerDeve Gowdas grandson Prajwal Revanna was present on the daisCatch up on all the latest Crime National International and Hatke news here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get the latest updatesThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever