HD Deve Gowda said he met Narendra Modi in Delhi to forge 2024 alliance (File)
Amid the possibility of the BJP and the JD(S) forging an understanding for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda confirmed that he held discussions with the BJP leadership in Delhi in the interest of the state and to save his party.
Stating that his son and party leader HD Kumaraswamy will hold discussions with the BJP leadership and make a decision on poll understanding, the JD(S) chief said that seat-sharing was not discussed during his talks in the national capital.
"It is being criticised (by Congress leaders) that HD Deve Gowda went and met someone in Delhi. Yes, this party needs to be saved. I have worked 40 years for this party. I saved this party even when HD Kumaraswamy went with the BJP (in 2006)," Mr Gowda said.
Addressing JD(S) workers in Bengaluru, he said, "Yes, I contacted the BJP leaders in Delhi, not for Deve Gowda to become the Prime Minister again. To save this party, a regional party, that I have nurtured for 40 years... Yes, I met Narendra Modi, when BJP leaders themselves expressed the desire to meet me. It is true that I spoke to them, but I have not asked for any seat."
On the poll understanding issue, the JD(S) patriarch said, HD Kumaraswamy will discuss seat-sharing with the PM and BJP.
"There is nothing to hide. PM Modi respects me, and so does the Home Minister. They know my behaviour. I did not ask for any number of seats. I have explained the situation in every segment. Kumaraswamy and they will sit and decide. I have that confidence," Deve Gowda added.
Noting that the BJP has the strength in every segment, Mr Deve Gowda said, "Don't the BJP have votes in Hassan, Mandya, Ramanagara, Kolar, Tumakuru? They do... Similarly, the BJP should also not think that JD(S) doesn't have anything. I have said this during discussion."
"In Bijapur and Raichur, you (BJP) can win seats only if you get my party's strength. In Bidar and Chikkamagaluru too we have a good number of votes..." he added.
Stating that he is being criticised for trying to make "immoral contact" with the BJP leadership in Delhi, Deve Gowda hit out at the Congress and said, "Who and which leader of the state has how much morality I can analyse. But I won't indulge in personal attacks. I have nothing to gain from it at 91."
Veteran BJP leader BS Yediyurappa had recently indicated that both parties have reached a poll understanding, with his party ceding four of the total 28 Lok Sabha seats to JD(S).
However, HD Kumaraswamy had subsequently said discussions regarding the BJP and his party contesting the Lok Sabha polls together were still in the initial phase, and no talks have taken place regarding seat-sharing.
The BJP had swept the 2019 LS polls in Karnataka by winning 25 seats, while an Independent candidate from Mandya (Sumalatha Ambareesh) backed by it won one seat. The Congress and the JD(S) won one seat each.
Addressing party workers, HD Kumaraswamy said that if BJP and JD(S) join hands, it will be to protect the state's resources and for its development, and not for personal desires or gains.
He hit out at Congress and INDIA bloc leaders for not showing the minimum courtesy of remembering HD Deve Gowda, who had worked to build secular forces, as he vowed to protect the interests of minorities.
The father and the son attacked the Congress government in Karnataka for its policies, terming them detrimental to the interest of the state, and vowed to defeat the ruling party which is "dreaming" about decimating JD(S) and winning maximum Lok Sabha seats from the state.