Siddaramaiah Lashes Out at Deve Gowda, HDK Over Vokkaliga Leadership
Bengaluru: Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Monday accused former Prime Minister H.D. Devegowda and his son former Chief Minister and Union Minister for Large Scale Industries H.D. Kumaraswamy, belonging to the Vokkaliga community, sabotaged the political career of many prospective Vokkaliga community leaders in Karnataka.
“It is okay that Devegowda and Kumaraswamy oppose me since I belong to a backward caste but even Vokkaliga leadership have been sabotaged,” accused the Chief Minister while addressing the gathering at the by-election campaign for Congress nominee C.P. Yogeshwar in Channapatna town of Ramnagar district.
In Channapatna Assembly seat, Vokkaliga voters are in majority followed by Muslims, Gangamata community (Fishermen) among others.
Siddaramaiah accused Devegowda, considered to be tallest leader of Vokkaliga community, of destroying political careers of Vokkaliga leaders who are intelligent and politically aware and some of the Vokkaliga leaders who saw suppression from Devegowda include late MLA Y.K. Ramaiah, Nagegowda, Bachegowda, Varade Gowda, Byregowda among many others.
“I have advised Janata Dal Secular MLA G.T. Devegowda to come out of the party otherwise he too will meet the same fate to that of other Vokkaliga leaders under H.D. Devegowda,” said Chief Minister and stated Devegowda tried to finish the political career of Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar and his brother D.K. Suresh, hailing from Vokkaliga community.
Apart from suppressing Vokkaliga leadership, he accused the former Prime Minister of having dislike towards members of dalit communities and backward classes.
He accused Devegowda of conducting campaigning for the success of his grandson Nikhil in the fray for Channapatna by-poll as National Democratic Alliance nominee and stated Deveghowda would have never campaigned had another nominee been in the fray for Channapatna by-poll. Channapatna goes for polling on Wednesday.
