R V Deshpande.
Credit: DH Photo
Bengaluru: Veteran politician R V Deshpande on Thursday continued the banter on legislative seniority by asserting his seniority and expressed his support for his long-time friend, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah.
“It was my mistake that I couldn't attend the session yesterday. While watching on TV, the discussion on seniority, I hoped that my good friend Siddaramaiah would mention my name. He may have forgotten. I stood for 10 elections and won nine.
"I have worked with 8 chief ministers. I was the right-hand man of Ramakrishna Hegde and S R Bommai. I was very close to Deve Gowda, J H Patel, SM Krishna, Dharam Singh, Siddaramaiah and H D Kumaraswamy," he said.
The Haliyal MLA first entered the Assembly in 1983, and has since won every election, except 2008.
"With a pro-poor and pro-marginalised apparoach, Siddaramaiah has brought many programmes, done development works. He has completed a five-year term and is trying to finish another five-year term.”
When the BJP sought more clarification on that, Deshpande said he wasn’t a competitor to Siddaramaiah and pledged his support to the chief minister.