Narendra Modi first praised me and then asked people not to vote for the JD(S), H D Devegowda said at a meeting Saturday.
THE POSSIBILITY of the Karnataka elections throwing up a hung Assembly has seen the two main Opposition parties, the BJP and the JD(S), engage in a flip-flop about each other. While indicating that the two parties are keen to keep channels open at the highest level, they have also tried to maintain a distance to ensure their respective poll prospects.
Indications that top leaders of both the parties suspect the possibility of a hung Assembly emerged after Prime Minister Narendra Modi praised JD(S) national president H D Devegowda on May 1 in Karnataka and questioned Congress’s attacks on Gowda.
“In politics, we have differences of opinion but there are some things you need to respect in public life… Our former prime minister H D Devegowda is a son of the soil. Whenever he has sought time to meet me in Delhi I have met him and not just that, when he comes to my house, I open his car door and welcome him and when he leaves, I go to the door and see him off,’’ Modi had said.
The comments were seen as an effort to unite JD(S) and BJP workers since the two parties are not fighting each other in all regions of Karnataka and see the Congress as a common enemy in the polls. While the JD(S) is strong in eight districts in south Karnataka, where the BJP has no presence, the BJP has a presence in the rest of the 22 districts of the state where the JD(S) only has a negligible presence. The remarks of the PM also, however, carried the danger of polarising voters, vary of a coalition government, towards the Congress.
While Devegowda had welcomed the PM’s remarks, saying he was only pointing to the lack of respect shown by the Congress to a “former prime minister’’, he said, “There is no need for Modi to praise me. Whenever I have met him I have explained the several problems faced by Karnataka. He would listen intently to what I had to say. He would not say anything. I was thinking he would say something about the Mahadayi water sharing issue which affects farmers of the state when he visits Karnataka. He did not do it.’’
On May 3, Modi shifted his position on the JD(S) at a rally in Bengaluru, saying voting for the JD(S) would be a waste since the party would only limp to third position.
At a party election meeting on Saturday, Devegowda responded by saying, “Modi first praised me and then asked people not to vote for the JD(S). Modi did this because no respect has been shown to a Kannadiga who became the prime minister… The PM has not been useful to the people of Karnataka. He does not say a word when we tell him that farmers are dying.’’
JD(S) state president H D Kumaraswamy, who has been accused by the Congress of forging a tacit understanding for the polls with BJP national president Amit Shah, has also criticised Modi over the last couple of days.
“For four years, Modi was quiet and he is now saying he will hold talks on the Mahadayi issue. Who is he going to talk to is the question. The injustice done to Karnataka is before our eyes,’’ Kumaraswamy said during campaigning.