Ex-PM Deve Gowda 'will actively work for 2023 polls'

Moving on from the dismal defeat in Sindgi and Hangal bypolls, JD(S) supremo HD Deve Gowda said Thursday his party would actively work for the 2023 Assembly elections.

The future of any party is in the general election and not in the bypolls where parties tend to misuse power, Gowda said.

The party fielded candidates for the bypolls only because there was pressure from certain well wishers so that the party cadre will be not be disappointed, the former prime minister said.

Read | Bypoll results will have no bearing on 2023 Karnataka Assembly polls: Yediyurappa

"Even though the party was unable to secure people's mandate electorally, it enjoyed goodwill in the region. No matter how much the Congress or BJP want to negate the efforts of JD(S) in the region, people will remember the contributions of the party, especially to the irrigation sector here," Gowda said.

As for allegations by Leader of the Opposition Siddaramaiah that JD(S) fielded Muslim candidates in both Sindgi and Hangal only to split Congress votes, Gowda said the charge was nothing new. "Siddaramaiah has only one weapon for all occasions, which is to blame JD(S) for fielding Muslim candidates," he said. "We got 4,000 votes in Sindagi. There were 38,000 Muslim votes there. If the rest of the Muslim votes didn't go to BJP, it must have gone to Congress itself."

He also said that the party needed donations to grow in the days to come. He was confident that the leaders in the party would help out, he said. Anyone who contributes to the fund will get a receipt and the accounts will be clean, he added.

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