'No doubt mid-term polls will happen in Karnataka'

June 21, 2019 15:20

In a sign of growing tensions in the ruling alliance in Karnataka, former prime minister and JD-S supremo H D Deve Gowda on Friday said there was no doubt there would be mid-term polls to the state assembly.

Gowda also said he did not know how long the Congress-JD-S government, headed by his son H D Kumaraswamy, would continue and it was in the hands of the senior coalition partner.

"There is no doubt that there will be mid-term polls. They (Congress) had said they will give support to us for five years. I am watching all the developments and their behaviour. Our people are intelligent enough. We need not have to teach them," he told reporters here.

Gowda's salvo came amid reports that Congress Legislature Party leader and former chief minister Siddaramaiah had conveyed to party president Rahul Gandhi that the alliance was causing damage to the grand old party and it became clear in the recent Lok Sabha polls' outcome.

The BJP had crushed the Congress and JD-S, winning 25 of the 28 Lok Sabha seats and leaving only one seat each to the two alliance partners. The BJP-backed independent candidate had won the Mandya seat.

Gowda said he has started the exercise of strengthening the party by conducting various meetings with the leaders.

"We will continue doing our work... these programmes will go on. I don't know how long this government will stay. It is in the hands of Congress leaders and not Kumaraswamy," the JD-S supremo said.

He also reminded the Congress leaders again that it was they who had approached the JD-S to form the government with Kumaraswamy as the chief minister.

"I was not after the formation of the coalition government. It is they (Congress) who came to us. I don't know whether they agreed for it or the Delhi high command directed them to do so," he added.

As Gowda's remarks raised alarm bells within the coalition, Kumaraswamy went into a damage control mode and said his government was safe.

He asserted that his father has been misunderstood.

-- PTI

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