TUMAKURU: Former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda, who kickstarted the second leg of his campaign for JDS candidate Anil Kumar R, a former KAS officer who is contesting the December 10 Council polls, on Friday asserted that he will continue his fight ‘stubbornly’ to safeguard the party from rivals who were conspiring to finishing it off.
Gowda appealed to the Vokkaliga community to not to get divided in the name of subsects, saying vested interests have been trying to cash in on it. “I have helped those from all Vokkaliga sects become leaders, besides Backward Classes and Minorities,” he said while reeling out names.
While the JDS candidate belongs to the ST Nayaka community, the BJP has fielded the Kunchitiga Vokkaliga leader, N Lokesh. Taking part in a rally at Gubbi on Friday, Gowda regretted that despite helping Backward Class leaders such as R L Jalappa in the Chikkaballapur Lok Sabha seat and late C N Bhaskarappa in Tumakuru, he was being branded as casteist by his rivals. Reacting to Congress leader Siddaramaiah’s remarks that Gowda was an “opportunist” for calling on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he shot back saying, “Does he have any sense?”.
“The party workers are my strength. I humbly appeal to you to teach a lesson to those who belittling the party”, he said. The 88-year-old JDS patriarch also took part in several rallies across the district as the party is looking to retain the seat which it had won in 2015.