“Mr Deve Gowda has been telling that only his son Mr Kumaraswamy has visited the houses of the deceased and consoled the family, and I had been taking rest in the Circuit House. If he proves his allegation, I will retire from politics,” he stated.

He was addressing a mega rally of Bharatiya Janatha Party condemning the denial of JD(S) for power transfer, at Nehru Maidan here on Tuesday. Over ten thousand BJP activists and admirers from across Dakshina Kannada and Udupi had assembled for the protest meet.

Mr Yediyurappa said all confusions regarding power transfer had been created because of the fear of the Deve Gowda family of being exposed of their real colour.

“Witnessing the phenomenal success of my popular schemes as the Deputy Chief Minister, the JD(S) felt that if such developments continued further, they would lose their identity in politics forever. It is only the identity crisis that made them to deny power transfer,” Mr Yediyurappa said.

Pointing at the complaint of the JD(S) that BJP had harassed them throughout the 20-month duration, the former DyCM said BJP had also experienced much harassment from the JD(S). “The Finance department was not given even principal secretary during the preparation of annual budget,” he recalled. As DyCM, I have stopped the leakage of about Rs 15,000 crore from the State treasury, he added.

In his address, BJP National Secretary Ananthakumar termed Mr Deve Gowda as modern Bhasmasura.
He said the BJP would win at least 150 seats in the forthcoming Assembly elections and would make Mr Yediyurappa to ascend the CM’s post.

BJP State President D V Sadananda Gowda criticised Mr Deve Gowda as a black spot on the State’s political scenario. “He has only tearful days in the coming days. It is better if he retires from politics,” he said.

Former ministers Ramachandra Gowda, Dr V S Acharya, B Nagaraj Shetty and the party MLAs were present on the occasion.