Bengaluru, Jun 10: Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) supremo and former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda said on Tuesday that he filed his nomination for the June 19 Rajya Sabha elections from Karnataka in response to a collective call from national leaders to be back in the Parliament.
"Though I was not personally interested to contest, national leaders from Congress President Sonia Gandhi, National Conference President Farooq Abdullah, TMC and Left parties want me back in Parliament," he told reporters here.
Gowda, 87, filed his nomination in the Vidhana Soudha, submitting the papers to Assembly Secretary and Returning Officer M.K. Vishalakshi, a party official told IANS.
Gowda''s second son and former minister H.D. Revanna and third son and former Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy were present on the occasion.
"Our party''s all 34 legislators also urged me to contest as my presence is necessary in Parliament at a time when the country was grappling with multiple crises in the aftermath of coronavirus," said Gowda.
Claiming that there was no pressure from his two sons as they are more concerned with his health, Gowda said he was touched by the requests of the national leaders, especially Gandhi who personally called him and asked him to contest as the country needed his presence in Parliament.
Gowda agreed to contest in the bypoll as his party''s candidate after the Congress state unit assured him of its support with its surplus votes, as the JD-S with 34 legislators is short of 10 votes of the required 44 votes.
It will be second time Gowda will enter the Rajya Sabha, 24 years after he was its member as the Prime Minster from June 1996 to April 1997 of the United Front government.
"Congress General Secretary K.C. Venugopal informed Kumaraswamy on June 6 that the party was fielding only its senior leader Mallikarjun Kharge from Karnataka and had surplus votes to ensure my victory as our party is 10 votes short of the required 44 votes to win," Gowda said.
Kharge filed his nomination on Monday.
Party''s outgoing member Kupendra Reddy, whose 6-year term ends on June 25, told Gowda that he was not interested for a second term as he did not get enough time in the upper house to raise issues.
"As our party does not have numbers in Parliament to get more time allotted to raise issues and participate in debates, Reddy wanted me to be in the Rajya Sabha in his place so that I could serve the nation better," Gowda said.
Gowda lost in the May 2019 general elections from Tumkur to G.S. Basvaraj of the BJP.
With the term of the four members -- Congress'' B.K. Hariprasad and Rajeev Gowda, BJP''s Prabhakar Kore and JD-S''s Reddy ending on June 25, the Election Commission notified the poll on June 1.
According to the poll panel, the nominations will be scrutinised on Wednesday and last date for withdrawal by candidates is June 12. Polling and vote count is on June 19.
From the ruling BJP, its grassroot cadres Eranna Kadadi and Ashok Gasti filed their nominations after Gowda.
By fielding Gowda for the fourth seat, the Congress and JD-S, who had post-poll and pre-poll alliances for the Lok Sabha and state Assembly elections in May 2019 and May 2018, queered the pitch for the BJP, denying it the chance to win a third seat.
Comments
Burnol time for some people here.. Welcome to the Original Religion.
mr thogadia several poor adivasi hundus are embrasing islam and christaianity becuase of your caste system in hinduism. try to help these poor hindus.
Oh yeah!!! IN YOUR DREAMS....right.Happy dreaming Togadia!!!
oh, thogadya got wrong information may be 7.5 lakhs were converted to islam
Togadiya you doesnt know that more than 50 lkh non muslims embraced islam in last 8 years.
Whatever tricks they do to reduce Muslims, But, Allah made Islam to supersede all the religions of the earth. Allah is the best planner.
Mr.Togadiya is just following his master's foot step!! nothing new in his statement, Just look @ our honorable prime minister's statement before election and now?? look at our prime ministers statement when he was on foreign tours and when he is in our country!! only these people are fooling us!! don't give much attention for these types of ill mentality what they called leaders!!
Pravin Togadia being JAIN, why he did not convert to Hinduism before converting others to Hinduism?
Is he loosing his mental stability??
Not only Pakistani Hindus, but, they should bring back to India Srilankan Hindus, Bangladeshi Hindus, Nepali Hindus, Mauritius Hindus, Thailand Hindus, American Hindus, European Hindus, African Hindus, Middle Eastern Hindus etc., All the Hindus must come back to Hindustan. So, they will have majority.
its not new thing..........he is not true to himself..as he himself does not belong to HINDUISM. he is a Jain
Common innocent Hindus are fooled time by time.........even in Al jazeera interview Ram madhav told they do follow Hindu culture not Religion
Very very absurd news. Even if it happened, they don't know what is Hinduism and what is Islam, what is Christianity.
Go to Bombay's Maidan where dozens of educated Hindus are accepting Islam in public, without any pressure or greed.
The govt's seems itself shows Hinduism is diminishing and Muslim population is increasing.
Do whatever you want, the God' s real religion will rein for ever,
All man made fake religions will cease.
I THINK THOGADIYA HAD DREAM LAST NIGHT ABOUT THIS ,
PLEASE DONT JOKE TOO MUCH .....
RSS means liars and always lying. foolish people
Fun of the year... will reward him with \FEKU of THE YEAR\"... Jai ho..."
Muslims Worshiping ONE & ONLY GOD ALLAH, The True CREATOR.
ALLAH is the creator of all that exists, Even U Togadia.
Ye Togadia, stop spreading False news, People are not FOOLS to believe what U say.... U are old. Soon people will throw YOU and Your devils will also Forsake U.
Look for the TRUE GOD and ask his Forgiveness...
ALLAH will forgive all Sins if repented sincerely except SHIRK (associating partners with him)
STOP worshiping the CREATION and LOOK for the CREATOR. IF U R HOnest The CREATOR will guide U to know the reality of YOUR Idol Worship...
Muslims will never bow down to idols & shits & urine & monkeys- SiCK people will do such thing...
RESEARCH it if U are intelligent.
I think thogadia is totaly mental, in last 10 years more then 10 lakh Non muslims converted to Islam.
FAKE NEWS AGAIN & ONLY FOOLISH WILL BELIEVE....
togadia pagal, It's totally a fake news.
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