Offered CM post to the Congress, says Deve Gowda

Bengaluru: JD(S) national leader H.D. Deve Gowda said on Monday that he had offered the post of Chief Minister to the Congress, when the party proposed a coalition. Simultaneously, he also defended his son Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy’s statement that he was at the ‘mercy’ of the Congress and not of the people of Karnataka.

Speaking to reporters, Gowda said that his party was in no hurry to come to power in the State. “Congress is the major party and we the minority. In that circumstance, I said there should be a Congress chief minister and we would support that,” he said. He also added that senior Congress leaders Ghulam Nabi Azad and Ashok Gehlot had said that the Congress high command had decided to field Kumaraswamy as the Chief Minister.

The Congress and the JD(S) are currently in a battle over the allocation of portfolios. Also, JD(S) sources said that Gowda is not sure as to how long the tenure of Kumaraswamy as the CM would be. Neither of the parties has arrived at a decision on the tenure and the Congress is constantly keeping things under wrap. This has apparently irked the father-son duo.

About Kumaraswamy’s statement that he was indebted to the Congress, Gowda defended his son saying that he was “a child of circumstance”. “With just 37 MLAs and programmes of another political party that need to continue, it is difficult without the Congress support. That is why he said he would resign and that he was obligated to the Congress,” he said.

Gowda also condemned BJP State President B.S. Yeddyurappa’s speech in the Legislative Assembly last week, wherein he indulged in an open attack on the JD(S) and Kumaraswamy. He said that as a common man, he had never seen such a low-level speech in the history of the Assembly.