JD(S) patriarch H. D. Deve Gowda said on Monday that there is no question of his party going near either the Congress or BJP and announced that he will be touring various parts of the state for campaigning ahead of the Assembly polls in Karnataka.
The former Prime Minister said he will campaign extensively in the party stronghold of the Old Mysuru region and a couple of districts in the northern parts of the state. “I will tour the state after April 10, preferably all of the Old Mysuru region—M Mandya, Hassan, Kolar, Chikkamagaluru, Chikkaballapur, Ramanagara, and Tumkur. I’m going to tour this region. This is our strong belt,” Gowda said in a video statement released by his office.
“I also want to go to Raichur and Vijayapura districts (north Karnataka), where I have done a lot of work to save farmers who were suffering badly because of the drought. By getting water from the Krishna (river), amidst a water-sharing dispute with Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra, I had worked there,” he said.
Stating that his son and party leader H. D. Kumaraswamy will tour the rest of the state, including these regions, the veteran leader said “there is no question of going either near Congress or near the BJP.” The 89-year-old leader had stayed away from active campaigning other than appearances at a couple of rallies, like the one in Mysuru recently, due to age-related ill health.
“Hassan is my congressional segment,” Gowda said of the Hassan seat. Of course, I have left it to my grandson (MP Prajwal Revanna). Even then, I have to take care of all these areas personally, along with Old Mysuru, Raichur, and Vijayapura, among others.” Differences seem to have cropped up within the Gowda family regarding the Hassan Assembly seat, which has become a bone of contention as Bhavani Revanna, who has thrown her hat in the ring, has not relented, despite her brother-in-law Kumaraswamy repeatedly making it clear that she will not be fielded and instead a “loyal party worker” will enter the fray.
Bhavani Revanna, a former Hassan zilla panchayat member, is the wife of Kumaraswamy’s elder brother and former minister H. D. Revanna and the daughter-in-law of Gowda.
