MANGALURU: JDS supremo HD Deve Gowda hinted on Sunday that both his grandsons Nikhil Gowda and Prajwal Revanna would contest in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. He was replying to a question about Mandya MP Sumalatha, late Ambareesh's wife, aspiring for an LS seat, during a function in Mangaluru.

"Nothing wrong in aspiring for a seat in elections. Nikhil is also an aspirant from Mandya," he said. Deve Gowda said he had tried to dissuade his grandsons from entering politics but they did not listen.

Deve Gowda said, "Prajwal after completing BE is now actively involved in politics at Hassan. Now Nikhil has also started showing keen interest in politics and people also urged him to contest from Mandya. He shouldn't feel that I am promoting only Prajwal, so I have given my consent to him as well," Deve Gowda also claimed that he was not promoting family politics... "all know that we are not traditionally a political family but an agrarian family".

When asked about contesting elections, Deve Gowda reiterated that it was not important and that he had been a parliamentarian for 27 years and had been a Prime Minister too.

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On Mandya and Hassan, he said that people know that JDS had a strong presence there.

"The ultimate goal is stopping BJP from gaining strength in the state. The party has no big presence in South India and it is important that fundamentalists are stopped from gaining ground," Deve Gowda opined.

Even Vajpayee had given a stable government in spite of having a coalition of 23 parties and so did Manmohan Singh for ten years with a coalition, he added.

Deve Gowda also said, "During my tenure as prime minister, I visited Kashmir five times but the situation was peaceful. In the last five years, Kashmir has seen four governments before finally coming under Governor's Rule. Three years under section 144, we can see how the situation has turned worse."