I was not invited for pro-DKS rally: HD Kumaraswamy

Bengaluru: Former Chief Minister, H.D. Kumaraswamy who has come out in support of senior Congress leader, D.K. Shivakumar, in the custody of the Enforcement Directorate, claiming that the Centre is targeting Vokkaligas, however, did not attend the rally taken out in protest against his arrest by the community in the city on Wednesday.

Instead of being at the rally,  Mr Kumaraswamy participated in a teachers’ felicitation programme and  attended a KDP meeting in Channapatna during the day.

While according to some Janata Dal (S) party workers he  intentionally avoided the rally because it made Mr Shivakumar  out to be the hero of the Vokkaligas  when he considered JD (S) supremo, H.D. Deve Gowda its supreme leader, Mr  Kumaraswamy himself clarified that he would have attended it had he been invited.

“However, my party workers and leaders participated in the programme,” he told reporters..

His close confidantes too claimed that Mr Kumaraswamy had genuinely buried differences with Mr Shivakumar and would have  attended the rally had the organisers invited him.

The former Chief Minister  asserted that all attempts to harass him had ended in failure as he had nothing to hide.    

“It was said I would be targeted and arrested. But nobody can touch me because I have not done anything wrong,” he declared.