Lashing out at former Minister G.T. Deve Gowda, former Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy on Wednesday said the JD(S) will not accept its party MLA representing Chamundeshwari Assembly constituency if he tries to return to the party after making futile efforts to join other parties.
“Let him do politics wherever he wants. He goes to Congress in the morning, JD(S) in the afternoon and BJP at night. He is going around trying to please all the leaders. We know that he will return to us when things do not work out with others,” Mr. Kumaraswamy said before making it clear that the doors of the JD(S) will be closed on Mr. Gowda if he returned.
However, Mr. Kumaraswamy also sought to make it clear that he did not make any statement on expelling Mr. Gowda from the party. He attributed reports to the effect appearing in a section of the media to lack of proper information. In this context, he said he was also aware that any action by the party against him will made use to generate sympathy for himself.
“I need not expel anybody. People and the party workers will decide. Party workers will take action against people indulging in anti-party activities whenever the time comes,” Mr. Kumaraswamy said. He said no decision had been taken by the party on Mr. Gowda yet, but the party is closely observing the developments.
He questioned Mr. Gowda’s commitment by referring to his participation in a procession along with Congress leaders from K.R. Nagar, who had contested against their party MLA S.R. Mahesh, during an event in the town recently for a co-operative bank function. “Nobody can fool us. We have information on what is going on,” he said.
When asked if Mr. Gowda’s departure from the party was a loss to JD(S), Mr. Kumaraswamy referred to the 2008 Assembly elections when Mr. Gowda had contested as BJP candidate from Hunsur and lost. But, in 2013 and 2018, Mr. Kumaraswamy said Mr. Gowda had contested from JD(S) and had won. “It was all due to the efforts of our party workers,” he said.
He lashed out at Mr. Gowda for claiming that former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda’s words do not prevail in the party and that his children dictate their father on party affairs.
