JOIN USJD(S) supremo H D Deve Gowda on Monday said he will disown his son H D Kumaraswamy if he allies with the BJP post the May 12 Assembly elections.
Gowda told reporters in Bengaluru that he would not approve of a post-poll alliance between the two parties at any cost.
Gowda had on Sunday told a national channel that such a situation would not arise. Stating that Kumaraswamy was resentful of his decision to align with the BJP in 2006, Gowda had said, “If such a thing happens, then my entire family will boycott him — I will disown him (Kumaraswamy).”
Further, Gowda had said that he would not allow Kumaraswamy to form a government with the Congress also.
Reiterating the same on Monday, he said, “I had told reporters of the channel that I will disown my son if he goes with the BJP. What’s there in it?”
“If he forms a government (with the BJP), that is a different issue. I will take take my own decision — I will not go with the party. If there is a fractured mandate, we will sit in the opposition,” said Gowda.
Gowda also attacked Chief Minister Siddaramaiah for repeatedly charging that the JD(S) had tied up with the BJP. “Isn’t Siddaramaiah ashamed of reiterating that I have a tacit understanding with the BJP? He chants the same thing from morning to night. A senior leader like Mallikarjun Kharge has never levelled such charges — no senior Congress leader has. If a lie is repeated 100 times, then people will start believing it to be the truth. This is nothing but dirty politics,” he said.
Gowda said Siddaramaiah had been making these charges ever since Congress president Rahul Gandhi’s visited Hassan last month. Rahul had termed the JD(S) as BJP’s B team.
He also said that he regretted his decision to extend support to the Congress in the BBMP.
On Siddaramaiah’s charges that Kumaraswamy was seen hobnobbing with BJP chief Amit Shah, Gowda demanded that the chief minister release authentic evidence, as opposed to documents like a “fake” flight ticket.
“There are also media reports that Siddaramaiah and Zameer Ahmed Khan (former MLA) had flown to Karachi together. How much credence should be given to all these charges?” he said.