Former prime minister H D Deve Gowda, his wife Chennamma, son JD(S) state president H D Kumaraswamy, and daughter-in-law Anitha Kumaraswamy were present during the launch of Kumara Parva Vikasa Yatre, projecting Kumaraswamy as the next chief ministerial candidate here, on Tuesday.

While the election campaign vehicle Karnataka Vikasa Vahini was launched atop the Chamundi Hill, the stage programme was held on an open ground at Lingadevarakoppalu, both under Chamundeshwari Assembly constituency. It has to be noted that Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has been repeatedly announcing that he would contest the 2018 polls from the same constituency. He was representing the constituency since 1983. He has been elected from the newly formed Varuna constituency for the past two terms. At present, the Chamundeshwari constituency is represented by G T Devegowda of the JD(S). Devegowda was Siddaramaiah's aide for nearly 25 years.

Kumaraswamy was taken out in a procession, accompanied by a motorbike rally and a bullock carts rally, from Hinkal village up to Lingadevarakoppalu on the Mysuru-Hunsur Road. He was welcomed by the party supporters in all the villages on the route.

Kumaraswamy said that Siddaramaiah ditched the JD(S) to fulfil his dream of becoming chief minister.

"Siddaramaiah is the most ungrateful politician. He was responsible for a procession of a portrait of former prime minister Deve Gowda, who was responsible for the rise of Siddaramaiah, with a string of chappals. Siddaramaiah has also ditched former MP A H Vishwanath, who was responsible for his acceptance in the Congress.

"Due to the arrogance of Siddaramaiah, even former chief minister S M Krishna left the Congress to join the BJP. Siddaramiah should understand that his arrogance and money power will not help him for long. People now know his character. When he resigned as JD(S) MLA, he even ditched the voters," he said.

G T Devegowda mentioned that Siddaramaiah's popular Anna Bhagya scheme is a result of then prime minister H D Deve Gowda's scheme to distribute rice to ration card holders. "Anna Bhagya rice comes from the Centre, but Siddaramaiah is taking the credit without any efforts by just giving it a name," he said.

On the same lines, Kumaraswamy said, Siddaramaiah was taking the credit for Ksheera Bhagya, which is a result of the efforts of H D Revanna in putting the Karnataka Milk Federation on the path of progress. "When Revanna was elected president of KMF, it was under a loss of nearly Rs 15 crore. Now, the KMF is capable of providing milk to lakhs of students across the state due to the efforts of Revanna," he claimed.

"At the fag end of his tenure, Siddaramaiah has woken up to probe the cases against the BJP leaders. What results can he give in the remaining three months of his tenure? Leaders of both the national parties - Congress and BJP -
are corrupt. Siddaramaiah, who is now with the Congress, is not the same one who was with former prime minister Deve Gowda. He has become very corrupt," Kumaraswamy said.

Earlier, the family members of Deve Gowda offered puja at the Chamundeshwari temple, atop the Chamundi Hill.