Deve Gowda confirms meeting BJP leadership, says Kumaraswamy will discuss on LS poll understanding
Bengaluru (PTI): Amid the possibility of BJP and JD(S) forging an understanding for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda on Sunday confirmed that he has held discussions with the saffron party's leadership in Delhi, in the interest of the state and to save his outfit.
Stating that his son and party leader H D Kumaraswamy will be holding discussions with the BJP leadership and decide regarding poll understanding, the JD(S) supremo said the seat sharing was not discussed during his talks in the national capital.
"It is being criticised (by Congress leaders) that Deve Gowda went and met someone in Delhi. Yes, this party needs to be saved. I have worked forty years for this party. I saved this party even when Kumaraswamy went with BJP (forming alliance government in 2006)," Gowda said.
Addressing JD(S) workers meeting here, he said, "Yes, I contacted BJP leaders in Delhi, not for Deve Gowda to become Prime Minister once again. To save this party, a regional party that I have nurtured for 40 years....Yes, I met Modi, when BJP leaders themselves expressed desire to meet me. It is true that I spoke to them, but I have not asked for any seat."
The JD(S) patriarch said, on the poll understanding issue, Kumaraswamy will ultimately discuss with Modi and BJP leaders, on how many seats they will give and how many the regional party will take and decide. "There is nothing to hide."
"Modi respects me, and so does the Home Minister (Amit Shah), they know my behaviour. I did not ask for any number of seats. I have explained the situation in every segment. Kumaraswamy and they will sit and decide. I have that confidence," he added.
Noting that BJP has strength in every segment, Gowda said, "Don't the BJP have votes in Hassan, Mandya, Ramanagara, Kolar, Tumakuru? they do ..... Similarly, BJP too should also not think that JD(S) don't have anything. I have said this during discussion."
"In Bijapur and Raichur you (BJP) can win seats only if you get my party's strength, if not you cannot win, I have told this to those leaders. In Bidar and Chikkamagaluru too we have a good number of votes..." he added.
Stating that he is being criticised for trying to make "immoral contact" with the BJP leadership in Delhi, Gowda hitting back at Congress leaders said, "who and which leader of the state has how much morality I can analyse, but I won't indulge in personal attacks. I have nothing to gain from it at this 91-years of age."
Veteran BJP leader B S Yediyurappa had recently indicated about both parties reaching a poll understanding, and his party ceding four out of total 28 Lok Sabha seats for JD(S).
However, Kumaraswamy had subsequently said discussions regarding BJP and his party contesting the Lok Sabha polls together were still in the initial phase, and no talks have taken place regarding seats sharing
The BJP had swept the 2019 LS polls in Karnataka by winning 25 seats, while an independent (Sumalatha Ambareesh from Mandya) backed by it won in one seat. The Congress and JD(S) won one seat each.
Addressing party workers, Kumaraswamy said, if BJP and JD(S) have to join hands it is to protect the state's resources and for its development, and not for personal desires or gains.
He hit out at Congress and INDIA bloc leaders for not showing the minimum courtesy of remembering Deve Gowda, who had worked for building secular forces, as he also vowed to protect the interest of minorities.
Both father and son duo attacked the Congress government in Karnataka for its polices, terming them as detrimental to the interest of the state and vowed to defeat the ruling party which is "dreaming" about decimating JD(S) and winning maximum LS seats in the state.
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‘Self-styled Vishwaguru stands exposed’: Cong's dig at PM over Pak role in US-Iran ceasefire
New Delhi (PTI): Taking a swipe at the government, the Congress on Wednesday said the role played by Pakistan in bringing about the ceasefire between the US and Iran is a “severe setback” to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's “highly personalised diplomacy” and “the self-styled Vishwaguru stands thoroughly exposed”.
The opposition party also said Prime Minister Modi's “cowardice is demonstrated by his silence not only on Israel’s belligerence, but on the completely unacceptable and disgraceful language being used by his good friend in the White House”.
Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh said the entire world will cautiously welcome the two-week ceasefire in the West Asia conflict between the US and Israel on the one side and Iran on the other.
“The conflict had begun on February 28th with the targeted assassinations of the topmost echelons of the regime in Iran. These had started just two days after Prime Minister Modi had completed his much-trumpeted visit to Israel, a visit that diminished India’s global stature and standing,” Ramesh claimed.
PM Modi had said nothing about Israel’s "genocide" in Gaza and its aggressively expansionist policies in the occupied West Bank, Ramesh said.
“The role played by Pakistan in bringing about the ceasefire is a severe setback to both the substance and style of Mr Modi’s highly personalised diplomacy,” he said.
The policy to isolate Pakistan for its continuing support to terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir and to convince the world that it is a failed state has clearly not succeeded – unlike what Manmohan Singh had accomplished after the Mumbai terror attacks, Ramesh claimed.
That a bankrupt economy dependent entirely on the largesse of external donors and a broken country in so many ways was able to play such a role calls into question Modi’s strategy of engagement and narrative management, he said.
“He (Modi) or his team has also never explained why Op Sindoor was suddenly and abruptly halted on May 10th 2025 - the first announcement of which came from the US Secretary of State and for which the US President has claimed credit almost a hundred times since then,” the Congress leader said.
“There is a palpable sigh of relief everywhere. The External Affairs Minister (S Jaishankar) dismissed Pakistan as a dalal. But now the self-styled Vishwaguru stands thoroughly exposed, his self-declared 56-inch chest shrunk and shrivelled,” Ramesh said.
“His cowardice is demonstrated by his silence not only on Israel’s belligerence, but on the completely unacceptable and disgraceful language being used by his good friend in the White House,” the Congress leader added.
US President Donald Trump pulled back on his threats to launch devastating strikes on Iran late Tuesday, as the US and Iran agreed to a two-week ceasefire that includes the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz.
Trump swerved to de-escalate the war less than two hours before the deadline he set for Tehran to capitulate to a deal or face attacks on its bridges and power plants meant to destroy the Iranian civilisation.
Trump made the dramatic announcement on Truth Social on Tuesday evening (US time) even as Democrats called for his removal over unhinged threats to wipe out the Iranian civilisation.
"Based on conversations with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Field Marshal Asim Munir, of Pakistan, and wherein they requested that I hold off the destructive force being sent tonight to Iran, subject to the Islamic Republic of Iran agreeing to the COMPLETE, IMMEDIATE, and SAFE OPENING of the Strait of Hormuz," the US President said in a social media post.
Iran's Supreme National Security Council said it has accepted the ceasefire and that it would negotiate with the United States in Pakistan beginning Friday. Neither Iran nor the United States said when the ceasefire would begin, and attacks took place in Israel, Iran and across the Gulf region early Wednesday.
Israel backed the US ceasefire with Iran but the deal doesn't cover fighting against Hezbollah in Lebanon, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said early Wednesday.
