Mangalore, November 20: “My battle is to bring Janata Dal (Secular) back to power and I will tour all the districts in the state to strengthen the party keeping in the mind the upcoming elections”, said former Prime Minister and JD(S) supremo H D Deve Gowda.
He was addressing to media persons during a small stop at Kavoor on the outskirts of the city, on his way to Udupi.
“Though I want to spend playful time with my grandchildren I don't do it,” said 78-year-old leader.
Clarifying that JD(S) is neither going to support BJP nor Congress in Bellary bypoll, Mr Gowda said if the district unit of the party wants it can support an independent candidate.
“JD(S) distances itself from both Congress and BJP as they are two faces of the same coin. Except Hindutva philosophy, Congress follows the same path of BJP in economic policies of the country”, he said.
He said the reason behind the decision of JD(S) not to field a candidate in Bellary bypoll, was that the party and the candidate did not want to waste the limited small resources. “It was my decision not to field candidate in Bellary as well as in Koppal because ruling party has advantage of spending money more”, he reasoned.
He said that it was not possible to support B Sriramulu openly. However, he said, he was the last person to take advantage of internal conflict of other parties.
Mr Gowda said that the Bellary bypoll may cause ripples in national level politics as national parties obviously want the support of regional parties for their survival before or after the election.
He also expressed his concern over the 'negligence of UPA government' to agricultural sector. He said that Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh himself had admitted that the agriculture sector was being neglected during his tenure.
Illegal Mining
Mr Gowda said, it was JD(S) which included the establishment of Special Court for the inquiry of illegalities in mining in its election manifesto in 2004. “But we lost the election and the matter went in vain”, he added.
Y S V Datta, JD(S) spokeperson, Deviprasad Shetty, President of Belapu Gram Panchayat, S N Bojegowda, Vasanth Poojary, M B Sadashiva and others were present.
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