Lingayat religion issue: Congress can go any extent to win elections: Deve Gowda

Former prime minister H D Deve Gowda, on Wednesday, criticised the Congress for its move to recommend to the Centre to grant minority status to Lingayats, while rejecting the same in 2013 when it headed the UPA government at the Centre. Gowda said the party can go to any extent to win elections.

"We do not know if the move will be fruitful or not. But the previous Congress government (UPA) had rejected the demand of the Lingayats. Now, they have accepted it. They can go to any extent to win elections," the JD(S) president said, adding that his party had maintained a neutral stand on the issue.

On the statement by suspended JD(S) MLA H C Balakrishna that he was willing to talk to the JD(S) leadership, Gowda said the party would take a decision on the request by the rebel MLAs only after Assembly Speaker K B Koliwad pronounced his verdict on the disqualification plea made by the party.

On JD(S) state president H D Kumaraswamy's plan to contest from Ramanagaram and Channapattana, he said it was left to Kumaraswamy to decide on where to contest from. "I have no objection if Kumaraswamy contests from two places," he said.