Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru (SP)

Bengaluru, Jun 21: "I am not aware under what circumstances Deve Gowda predicted that interim poll will definitely take place. But we will take into account what he said," said Karnataka deputy chief minister, Dr G Parameshwar. He also stated that Deve Gowda is an elderly, experienced person and past Prime Minister of the country. Therefore, his statement would be taken into account seriously, he stated.

Parameshwar concurred with Deve Gowda's claim that Congress leaders had approached the latter at his home, and offered to make Kumaraswamy the chief minister. "It is also true that Rahul Gandhi had said that BJP rule is not efficient and expressed the wish to have truck with the JD(S). We have accepted Kumaraswamy as the chief minister. When running a coalition government, minor problems do crop up. The right thing to do is to overlook problems and go ahead, duly taking care to see that coalition principles are followed," he added.

"All of us sat and discussed together before making Kumaraswamy our chief minister. I will speak about the statement of Deve Gowda with Siddaramaiah, Dinesh Gundu Rao, and the chief minister. We have not ta snatched away anything from others. At the time of preliminary discussions itself, we had agreed that two independent legislators would be made minsters at the rate of one each from both the parties. We did not snatch away anything," he said.

Minister, D K Shivakumar said that Deve Gowda has no grouse against the coalition government's functioning and that he had just aired what he felt. He insisted that the government is on a firm footing.