Karnataka - Mysore   

Deve Gowda's caste politics has come a cropper: Siddaramaiah

Staff Correspondent

AIPJD leader salutes voters for rejecting Janata Dal (S) supremo's campaign

UPBEAT MOOD: The former Deputy Chief Minister Siddaramaiah (second from right) addressing presspersons in Mysore on Thursday.

MYSORE: Former Deputy Chief Minister and All-India Progressive Janata Dal (AIPJD) leader Siddaramaiah has claimed that the former Prime Minister and Janata Dal (Secular) supremo H.D. Deve Gowda's "caste politics" has come a cropper during the recent elections to the zilla and taluk panchayats in the State.

Addressing a press conference here on Thursday, Mr. Siddaramaiah saluted the voters of the State for "rejecting" the alleged caste politics of Mr. Deve Gowda and his followers, who tried to raise the bogey of internal reservation among the backward classes.

"They accused the AHINDA of pitting the upper classes against the lower classes. They had launched an elaborate whispering campaign against me. They tried to project me as an opponent of Brahmins, Lingayats and Vokkaligas. But, they have failed miserably. The voters have rejected Janata Dal (S)," Mr. Siddaramaiah said.

Claiming that voters of the State had outgrown their caste affiliations and voted during the recent elections, Mr. Siddaramaiah said Mr. Deve Gowda's caste politics had clearly failed to deliver.

Happy mood

In an upbeat mood over the party's success in Mysore district, Mr. Siddaramaiah cited the instance of a candidate from the Arasu community winning the elections in Hinkal constituency on the outskirts of Mysore, whose electorate is predominantly Vokkaliga. Mr. Siddaramaiah also attributed his party's success to the acknowledgement by the voters of the political injustice meted to him by a "selfish" Mr. Deve Gowda.

Though the local body polls in Karnataka had traditionally been won by the party in power, the Janata Dal (S), with a total of 17 Ministers holding powerful portfolios and the administrative machinery at its beck and call, could win only two zilla panchayats, Mr. Siddaramaiah said.

The elections saw an unprecedented misuse of power, he charged.

Murthy criticised

Mr. Siddaramaiah used the occasion to launch a blistering attack on veteran politician M. Rajashekara Murthy, who recently joined the Janata Dal (S), and described him as an "armchair politician."

Taking serious exception to Mr. Murthy's recent remarks that he (Mr. Siddaramaiah) used to tie buntings at party functions and it was Mr. Murthy, who initiated him into politics by giving him a ticket to contest the taluk level polls, an visibly angry Mr. Siddaramaiah retorted that he had won the elections on his own.

"Did he come for campaigning for the Janata Party from which I contested in 1978? Where was he during the Emergency? It was I who took to the streets and was arrested," Mr. Siddaramaiah said.

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