H D Deve Gowda says PM Modi won't topple govt

Bengaluru: Three days ahead of his son and Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy's second budget, JD (S) patriarch H D Deve Gowda treated Prime Minister Narendra Modi and national leadership of BJP with kid gloves with regard to moves to lure MLAs of the ruling coalition and topple the government.

In a chat with media persons outside his residence here on Tuesday, Mr Gowda, who along with his son, had alleged umpteen number of times through Twitter about Mr Modi and BJP president Amit Shah's attempts at  destablizing the coalition government, was not harsh on him this time.  Mr Kumaraswamy had even quizzed Mr Modi about his double standards on combating corruption. He had alleged that central leaders were involved in offering money as inducement for MLAs of the coalition.

However, on Tuesday, Mr Gowda said since the PM had other commitments, he might not got entangled with 'Operation Lotus'.

"I do not think the Prime Minister is involved. And even party national unit too might not be aware of this. I think, Operation Lotus was the handiwork of B.S. Yeddyurappa who was desperate to become the Chief Minister. He could not become the CM as his mission was destined to fail," he added.

On Monday, while interacting with select journalists, Mr Kumaraswamy too went soft on the Prime Minister.

While replying a question on destruction of federalism by the Modi government, he said the NDA government was destroying the federal structure. "They have targeted every opposition leader," but paused to add in a lighter vein "they did not touch the Deve Gowda family (so far)."