BENGALURU: A day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi lavished praise on him at an election rally in Karnataka, JDS supremo H D Deve Gowda on Wednesday sought to play it down, saying it did not mean both parties were cosying up to each other.
Gowda also slammed chief minister Siddaramaiah for suggesting that his party would back BJP. He claimed that it was Siddaramaiah who wanted to become Chief Minister in 2004 with the saffron party support when he was in the JDS.
Virtually endorsing Modi’s criticism of Rahul Gandhi for having ‘insulted’ him, the JDS supremo also said a Kannadiga had become Prime Minister and Siddaramaiah tried to “demolish” Kannadigas’ pride.
“This is how Congress gives respect to Kannada pride,” Gowda, who was the prime minister heading the United Front government at the centre during 1996-97, told a press conference here. He asserted JDS would come back to power in the May 12 polls, and discounted possibility of a hung assembly.
“Maybe, by praising me, he (the prime minister) wants to gain sympathy. That is all,” Gowda said.