BENGALURU: State President of Janata Dal Secular (JDS) and former Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy by appearing in saffron shawl with Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) during a protest in Mandya over removal of saffron flag on Monday might have taken JDS on its last journey in the State, observed Mandya district incharge and Minister for Agriculture N. Chaluvarayaswamy and stated that Kumaraswamy has ended JDS party.
The Minister accused Kumaraswamy of being a “desperate” leader after losing power and stated that “It is Mandya and not Mangaluru or Udupi (to make it into an experimental ground for imposing Hindutva).”
“Even we lost elections and waited for 5 years waiting for our turn but watched what your MLAs did to Mandya,” said the Minister and asked Kumaraswamy to have patience to return to power.
Chaluvarayaswamy stated that Janata Dal Secular and Janata Parivar came into existence owing to the efforts of Jayaprakash Narayan and leaders such as former Prime Minister H.D. Devegowda, late Chief Ministers Ramakrishna Hedge and S.R. Bommai strived hard to build Janata Parivar in the State and the founders would have been “hurt’ by the attitude of Kumarasamy appearing in saffron shawl.
“Had he joined the BJP would not have hurt the founders as much as he appeared in a saffron shawl,” observed the Minister and appealed to Kumaraswamy not to indulge in activities aimed at stirring up communal harmony in Mandya.
The Minister reminded that people of Mandya have supported him to ascend to the post of Chief Minister twice and questioned Kumaraswamy over his participating in the protest seeking answers ``Whether his protest was against hoisting tricolor in Keregodu of Mandya?”
At the outset it looks like that Kumaraswamy participated in the protest over a (saffron) flag issue in Mandya with an intention to bring down tricolor? said the Minister and asked Kumaraswamy “Don’t not disturb communal amity in Mandya” and told Kumaraswamy that “Bear it in mind that Mandya people have supported JDS to make him Chief Minister. He asked Kumaraswamy to “introspect.”
Questioning Kumaraswamy over his participation in the protest over a flag, Chaluvarayswamy asked “You never spoke on numerous accidents on newly constructed Mysuru-Bengaluru National Highway? Or about generation of jobs for Mandya youths among other issues.
He told both JDS and BJP leaders that people of Mandya would not tolerate any attempts to incite communal tension and asked youths of Mandya not to fall for opposition words.
MLAs Narendra Swamy, Ravikumar Gowda, Uday Gowda and others were present with the Minister at the press conference.
