Deve Gowda pep talk for HD Kumaraswamy

Bengaluru: Embattled Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy who is facing the biggest threat to his government after he assumed power fourteen months ago, on Wednesday received  a pep talk from his father and JD(S) supremo H.D. Deve Gowda who reportedly told him not to give up till the last minute and exhaust all options before deciding to step down if he had to.

Mr Gowda gave this piece of advice to Mr Kumaraswamy during a one-on-one meeting   at his Padmanabha Nagar residence in the city. He said both national parties (BJP and Congress) were out to finish the JD (S), a regional party, and therefore, he should not fall into the trap. According to Mr Gowda, former CM Siddaramaiah and Water Resources Minister D.K. Shivakumar played to the gallery instead of trying to help him to save the government. Mr Kumaraswamy should therefore not trust Congress leaders at all, let alone going with the BJP, he stressed.

Mr Deve Gowda is also learnt to have advised his son that he was at liberty to attack the BJP inside the Assembly and reel out data pertaining to the release of funds to the constituencies of the MLAs who had resigned and had cited lack of funds as one of their reasons. If the government survived, it would be good, otherwise, he should go all out against the Congress party too, sources said quoting the advice the JD(S) supremo gave his son.

Sources said the former PM also spoke to former AICC president Sonia Gandhi and said it was necessary to save the coalition government at any cost. Thereafter, Mr Gowda received a call from West Bengal chief minister, Mamata Banerjee who tried to  boost his morale telling him that he should pull out all stops to save the government and defeat