Hassan, Jan 19 (IANS): Former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda stated on Friday that he will visit Ayodhya with his family on January 22 and attend the ‘Prana Pratishtha’ event of the Ram temple.

Speaking to reporters, Deve Gowda said, “I am leaving for Ayodhya with my wife, son, former Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy, his wife Anita Kumaraswamy, and grandson Nikhil Kumaraswamy. A special flight has been arranged on January 22, and we will travel in that to Ayodhya from Bengaluru.”

Regarding seat sharing, Deve Gowda mentioned that he doesn’t know whether the JD(S) would be given three or four seats to contest in the Lok Sabha elections.

Slamming the Congress party, Deve Gowda stated that people know who forced him to step down from the post of Prime Minister after 13 months and who brought down the Kumaraswamy-led coalition Government.

“I have worked hard for 60 years in my political life. There should be a debate on which communities have benefited from reservation and who has enjoyed the fruits of reservation the most,” he opined.

He accused the Karnataka Government of passing the buck to the Centre regarding internal reservation. “I will raise the issue regarding the development in this election,” he stated.

Deve Gowda ruled out contesting in the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections. “I had reduced the reservation quota of the Vokkaliga community to increase the quota for Muslims during my tenure as the CM of Karnataka. All these years, a few families have enjoyed the fruits of reservation. AICC President Mallikarjun Kharge had torn the copy of the resolution of internal reservation and thrown it in my face when he was the Leader of the Opposition in the state Assembly. Today, he is debating internal reservation,” Deve Gowda maintained.