GTD admits to disappointment with party over denial of Assembly floor leader’s post

Former Minister and senior JD(S) leader G.T. Deve Gowda has admitted his disappointment with the party leadership over denial of party’s floor leader post in the Legislative Assembly.

Fielding queries from reporters in Mysuru on Wednesday, Mr. Gowda, who has been maintaining a distance from the party affairs since the last couple of months, said he had not participated in any meeting of the party ever since senior JD(S) leader H.D. Kumaraswamy entrusted the post of the party’s floor leader in the Legislative Assembly to Suresh Babu overlooking his seniority.

Mr. Gowda said he was denied the Assembly floor leader’s post, earlier held by Mr. Kumaraswamy, till the latter’s resignation as Channapatna MLA following his election to Lok Sabha from Mandya constituency. Mr. Gowda said he was not only a senior MLA eligible for the post, but had also asked the party leadership to give the post of the core committee chairperson to some other leader.

Pointing out that he was still left with tenure of three years as an MLA of Chamundeshwari Assembly constituency, Mr. Gowda said he will talk about his future course in politics after discussing it with the people of his constituency. “I will not make any personal decision. I will leave it to the people of the constituency. Depending on their wish, I will either stay with JD(S) or go to Congress or BJP,” he said.

Making it clear that he will continue to stay in electoral politics, Mr. Gowda vowed to contest the next elections. “I will contest the next elections. I will not abandon my workers and the poor people of the constituency. I will work for them and contest the elections. If I am elected, I will enter the Vidhana Soudha again or else I am ready to continue working for them in any other capacity,” he said.

Mr. Gowda also sought to make it clear that he will not defect to any party. “I am a JD(S) MLA now. After winning an election, I have never quit as an MLA and joined a different party,” Mr. Gowda said while also making it clear that he had not been invited either by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah nor Deputy Chief Minister and KPCC Chief D.K. Shivakumar to join the Congress party.

Neither the Congress nor the BJP have invited me to their respective parties, he said while also taking a dig at the JD(S) by pointing out that the party had not asked him to join the campaign during the by-elections to the Assembly from Channapatna Assembly segment either.

When Mr. Gowda, who said his political position was now “neutral”, was asked about his role in the elections to local bodies like the Zilla and Taluk Panchayat elections, the MLA said he will think about it when the elections come.

He hit out at a section of JD(S) leaders, whom he described as “new entrants”, and asked how many years they had held the party’s flag and worked with party supremo H.D. Deve Gowda to build the party like him. He also sought to remind his detractors in the JD(S) that he had stood with the party when a large number of partymen including MLAs deserted the party with Mr. Siddaramaiah in 2006.

He said he had been working in Chamundeshwari constituency against a tall leader like Mr. Siddaramaiah ever since then and said his detractors had no idea about such political challenges.