Mangaluru: Former prime minister and Janata Dal (Secular) supremo H D Deve Gowda hinted that his grandsons-both Nikhil Gowda and Prajwal Revanna would contest in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections in Mandya and Hassan constituencies respectively.
With this, the speculations over Nikhil Gowda’s entry into active politics has been confirmed. Speaking to the reporters here on Sunday, March 3, Gowda said that though he was not interested in bringing the two into political arena, it is people of Mandya and Hassan who wished to see the two contest polls. ” As it was the wish of the people, I won’t oppose it”, he added.
Gowda’s confirmation over Nikhil’s entry into politics came when reporters asked whether the JDS would offer ticket for Ambareesh’s wife Sumalath Ambareesh from Mandya constituency as the Congress would not like to field her. “As Nikhil is also an aspirant for the ticket from Mandya, the JDS has not decided to offer ticket to others”, he said.
“Though the JDS has demanded 12 seats out of 28 seats in Lok Sabha election. Our intention is to prevent the BJP from assuming power. Hence, we are ready to sacrifice anything to keep the BJP away, ” he said.
Taking a jibe on PM Modi, Gowda said that Modi should stop claiming credit for everything that is done.
“When I was the prime minister of the country for only 10 months, I had paid visit to Kashmir for five times and ensured that there was no violence in Kashmir valley. But, Modi has been praising his government for airstrike of IAF and recent developments. This is not the way a good prime minister should leads the country”, he said.
Meanwhile, Gowda disbursed Rs 5 lakh to 60 beneficiaries on the same occasion. The amount was given by MLC B M Farooq who had decided to hand over the salary of him to the poor people.
Leaders like M B Sadashiv, Akshith Suvarna, Mohammed Kunhi, Susheel Noronha among others were present.
