Kumaraswamy turns emotional, says never indulged in money politics

Tumakuru: JD(S) leader H D Kumaraswamy on Monday turned emotional as he recalled efforts behind building a regional party, and asserted that he has never indulged in money politics.

”Building a regional party is not that easy, we don’t have contact with big and rich people while going for every election. Our contact is with you- innocent village people, we have grown from you,” an emotional Kumaraswamy said.

Addressing a gathering at a party event at Gubbi near here, he said, ”In our family, we have never done politics with money. We have worked with the support of lakhs of workers like you, and with your blessings.” ”…some great people are talking about me asking for a suitcase (containing money), if god is there, he will take care of them,” he added.

The former Chief Minister was referring to allegations levelled against him during a campaign for Sindagi and Hangal by-polls by his former confidant and now Congress MLA B Z Zameer Ahmed Khan of indulging in ”suitcase politics.”

Stating that he has gone through lot of pain and has put in all efforts to build the party despite ill-health, Kumaraswamy said, ” I would have died during my Israel visit (2017), but I survived because of the good deeds of my parents…after going through heart surgery for second time, within one month I travelled across the State to build the party.”

Questioning as to which leader has travelled with him across the State to build the party other than party supremo H D Deve Gowda despite his old age, he said, ”In this part (old Mysuru region) you show affection to me as people belonging to my community are there, but I will have to go to north Karnataka and build the party. I will go there as well. Despite all these efforts, today we are in a position to win 28-40 seats.”