"I am also an Accidental Prime Minister," says Deve Gowda
Bengaluru, Dec 29: Former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda Friday said he too was an "Accidental Prime Minister" amid a political row over the movie with the same title.
The film is based on Manmohan Singh's tenure as India's prime minister from 2004 to 2014 with the Congress alleging it was the BJP's propaganda against their party.
The movie is based on the book of the same name by Sanjaya Baru, who served as Singh's media adviser from 2004 to 2008.
The film's trailer was released in Mumbai on Thursday.
Reacting to a question over the controversy, the 85-year-old JDS supremo said "Actually I don't know, why that was allowed, I think it started three or four months ago.
I don't know who has permitted, why? honestly, I have not gone through this so called Accidental Prime Minister.
I'm also (an) Accidental Prime Minister," Gowda said in a lighter vein.
In the 1996 general elections, no party won enough seats to form a government. The United Front, a conglomeration of non-Congress and non-BJP regional parties, decided to form the government at the Centre with the support of the Congress and chose Gowda to head the government.
He served as prime minister from June 1 1996 to April 21 1997 with the help of regional parties and Congress. Later when Congress withdrew support, Gowda had to step down.
Directed by Vijay Ratnakar Gutte, the film stars Kher as Manmohan Singh and Akshaye Khanna as Baru. It is slated for release on January 11.
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New govt in Maharashtra to be formed on Dec 5, Fadnavis frontrunner for CM post: BJP leader
Mumbai (PTI): Mahayuti alliance's new government in Maharashtra will be formed on December 5 with Devendra Fadnavis emerging as the frontrunner to become the next chief minister again, a senior BJP leader said on Saturday.
In the November 20 Maharashtra assembly polls, the Mahayuti alliance of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena and Ajit Pawar's Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) retained power, pocketing a whopping 230 of the 288 assembly seats. The BJP emerged as the single largest party, winning 132 seats, followed by Shiv Sena with 57 and NCP with 41 seats.
However, even after the announcement of poll results a week ago (on November 23), the formation of the government has been delayed as the tripartite alliance is yet to decide on who will be the next chief minister. Shinde, Fadnavis and Pawar met BJP president J P Nadda and Union minister Amit Shah late Thursday to discuss a power-sharing pact for the next government.
A key Mahayuti meeting scheduled on Friday was put off and likely to take place on Sunday now as caretaker Chief Minister Eknath Shinde headed to his native village in Satara district, delaying government formation further.
The BJP leader, who did not wish to be quoted, said the swearing-in of the new government will take place on December 5.
Senior BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis, who was the chief minister twice and deputy chief minister in the last government, is the frontrunner for the top post, the leader said.
Another senior BJP leader said the chief minister's swearing-in ceremony will take place at Azad Maidan in south Mumbai.
But before that, a meeting will be held on December 2 to pick the BJP legislature party leader, he said.
Caretaker CM Shinde has made it clear that he will fully support BJP leadership's decision to name the next CM, and that he won't be a hurdle in the process, while Ajit Pawar-led NCP has backed Fadnavis for the chief minister's post.
In the assembly elections, Congress-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) suffered a setback. The grand old party registered one of its worst performances in the state assembly polls after it won only 16 seats. Sharad Pawar's NCP (SP) could bag only 10 seats, whereas Uddhav Thackeray's (UBT) won 20.
