Bangalore: I have Nothing to Do with DVS: Deve Gowda
From Our Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network - Bangalore
With IANS Inputs
Bangalore, Jul 9: JD(S) national president H D Deve Gowda on Monday asserted that he had nothing to do with outgoing Karnataka Chief Minister D V Sadananda Gowda, who is being replaced by former chief minister B S Yeddyurappa’s enemy turned nominee and the politically powerful Lingayat community leader Jagadish Shettar.
''I have not spoken to Sadananda Gowda for the past seven months. I have nothing to do with Sadananda Gowda," the JD(S) supremo said declaed, in a public reaction to Sadananda Gowda’s statement in Delhi that he would retire from political life if it was proved that he was in collusion with JD(S).
On asked whether the BJP high command had made Sadananda Gowda a scapegoat for the political blackmailing tactics of Yeddyurappa, Deve Gowda said it is left for BJP’s national leaders, especially the BJP Parliamentary Board Chairman L K Advani, to explain why the chief minister was being removed within 11 months when there were no corruption charges against him.
''Let Advani answer whether the treatment of Sadananda Gowda indicated how the party treated its leaders for giving a clean administration,” he said.
''Why should our party have anything to do with BJP and its leaders?,” he asked asserting that JD(S) did not need any help from BJP or Sadananda Gowda. ''Ours is an independent party and we are capable of fighting our political battles on our own,” he said.
The former prime minster said it has become a fashion for the opponents of JD(S) to blame the party for any of their internal problems, he said pointing out that some Congress leaders had leveled similar charges when Dharam Singh was chief minister in the Congress-JD(S) coalition regime.
“People said Dharam Singh ran the administration on my diktat. If that was the case, then why did H D Kumaraswamy join hands with the BJP to form the coalition government?,” the Vokkaliga stalwart asked.
He refused to answer questions on whether the shabby treatment of Sadananda Gowda had proved a blessing in disguise for the JD(S). ''Why should we depend on any crumbs from BJP?,” he asked pointing out that JD(S) had its own support base.
Vokkaligas Protest
Meanwhile, several Vokkaliga organisations staged protests in Channapatna shouting slogans against Yeddyurappa, who belongs to the Lingayat community, for being the architect behind Sadananda’s ouster. There were similar protests in other parts of Old Mysore region, especially Bangalore.
The protesters burnt effigies of Yeddyurappa, Excise Minister M P Renukacharya and BJP National president Nitin Gadkari.
Heads of social and religious organisations belonging to the Vokkaliga community joined rallies and sit-in demonstrations across Bangalore, Mandya and Mysore, criticising the BJP for playing caste politics and succumbing to the pressures of the rival Lingayat community to replace Gowda with state Rural Development Minister Jagadish Shettar as its third chief minister in the state.
"It is despicable that the BJP had stooped so low to remove Gowda solely on caste considerations and replace him with Shettar (a Lingayat) for vote bank politics. It is unfortunate Gowda is paying heavy price for being a Vokkaliga and providing a corruption-free government during the past 10 months," Karnataka Rakshna Vedike (protection forum) president Narayana Gowda told reporters in Bangalore.
Bowing to the mounting pressure of former chief minister B.S. Yeddyurappa and his supporters for a change in the party leadership, the BJP high command Sunday decided to replace Gowda with Shettar with an eye on the next state legislative assembly elections in May 2013.
Gowda became the ruling party second chief minister August 4, 2011 after scam-hit Yeddyurappa resigned July 31 following his indictment by then Karnataka Lokayukta (ombudsman) Justice (retired) N. Santosh Hegde on bribery charge in the multi-crore mining scam that rocked the state.
Though Lingayats are a dominant community in the state constituting around 17 percent of the state's 65 million people, Vokkaligas are also an equally powerful caste group accounting for 16 percent of the population.
"The BJP is daydreaming that it will return to power after the next assembly poll by having a Lingayat leader as chief minister. By playing the community card, its leaders are polarising the people on caste lines. The electorate will teach them a fitting lesson at the hustings, the Vedike president said.
Raising slogans against the BJP, the protesters also burnt effigies of Yeddyurappa and Shettar for ousting Gowda, who was elected by the party's lawmakers in August last year through a ballot.
The heads of the Vokkaliga organisations also appealed to the BJP ministers and legislators belonging to the powerful community to resign from their posts in protest against the unceremonious removal of Gowda.
"We will stage protests in front of the Vokkaliga ministers and lawmakers' houses if they do not resign in support of our cause and express solidarity with Gowda, who has been made a scapegoat in the vexed caste politics of the BJP," asserted Narayana Gowda.