JOIN USOn Tuesday, it was the turn of JD(S) supremo H D Deve Gowda’s turn to endorse what his son H D Kumaraswamy had said about the party’s intention to forge an alliance with the Congress for power in the BBMP.
Gowda said that there was no need for the State Congress leadership to hold talks with him in this regard. It would suffice if they held discussions with Kumaraswamy, who is the State JD(S) president, he said.
Addressing a press conference in Bengaluru, Gowda, however, said that this alliance should not threaten his party’s existence. Hence, he claimed, his party would not be putting forth any demands to share power in the Palike.
He said that his party would not even demand the deputy mayor’s post and whether it would be offered by the Congress was a matter of hypothesis.
He recalled that senior Congress leader Mallikarjuna Kharge had said that the State leadership of the Congress had to take a call on the matter and there was no need for the high command to interfere.
“I don’t expect Siddaramaiah or Parameshwara to hold talks with me. We have the numerical strength, with 14 corporators and seven non-corporators. This is enough for us to get three to four posts, including the membership and chairmanship in the standing committees,” the former prime minister said.
He said that he had given his consent for his party corporators to be taken to a “resort”, as they were vulnerable to being poached by the BJP, which he said had given indications that it might indulge in horse trading.
He said that the saffron party had set a bad precedent by experimenting with Operation Lotus in 2008. Gowda said that the talks with the BJP was a closed chapter.
He has called for a meeting of defeated candidates on September 5, to seek their opinion on the matter.
After Gowda’s media
interaction, party legislator B Z Zameer Ahmed Khan met Bengaluru Urban district incharge Minister Ramalinga Reddy. Khan is learnt to have conveyed to Reddy that his party, despite some dissenting notes, had decided to go with the Congress.