Deve Gowda, son, grandson turn emotional, BJP dubs it 'drama'
Bengaluru, Mar 13: JD(S) patriarch H D DeveGowda Wednesday turned emotional and said he was pained by allegations of dynasty politics against him.
The former prime minister's emotional response was to growing criticism of his family's alleged dynasty politics with JD(S) fielding both his grandsons Nikhil Kumaraswamy and Prajwal Revanna from party bastions of Mandya And Hassan respectively for the Lok Sabha polls.
"...so many allegations, from morning in the media (they talk about) Deve Gowda, Revanna, Kumaraswamy and their sons," Gowda said as he broke down at an event in Hassan to launch the poll campaign of Prajwal Revanna.
Prajwal, son of Gowda's elder son and PWD Minister H D Revanna, is Congress-JDS coalition's candidate from Hassan.
Seeing Gowda wiping tears and speaking in a heavy voice, JD(S) supporters gathered at the event requested him to calm down.
BJP has hit out at Deve Gowda, by calling the emotional episode as "drama".
The event also witnessed both Prajwal and his father Revanna too getting emotional.
Prajwal broke down as Gowda declared him as the candidate and Revanna while MLA Balakrishna was speaking about Gowda not contesting from Hassan this time.
Later speaking to reporters, Gowda said, he was pained by controversy in Mandya against his other grandson and chief minister H D Kumaraswamy's son Nikhil's candidature.
He said, "It was the decision of JD(S) leaders to field Nikil from Mandya. I had not announced.I'm deeply pained, they are saying Nikhil Go Back..."
"...I will go to Mandya... let them shout go back...for whom I fought in last 60 years, I will place everything before the people of Mandya," he added.
Opposition is simmering against Nikhil's candidature in Mandya, as many who claim to be JD(S) supporters have hit out at the party leadership for sidelining loyal party workers to favour someone from their family despite not being actively involved in party activities.
A social media campaign titled "Go back Nikhil" had gained momentum in Mandya a couple of days ago to oppose the "dynasty politics" of the Deve Gowda family.
BJP said: "First Drama for the 2019 elections begins now," as it tweeted videos of Gowda and family getting emotional at the Hassan event.
"If "CRYING" was an art Sri. @H_D_Devegowda & his family would hold the record for mastering the "Art Of Crying"to constantly fool people for decades. Matter of the fact isBefore elections Deve Gowda & his family cries.
Afterelections people who vote this family cries," it said in another tweet.
Chief Minister Kumaraswamy is also prone to sentimental outbursts over coalition troubles.
"Emotions are my weakness. It is in my blood. It is very difficult to control," Kumaraswamy had said last month.
With tears trickling down his cheeks, Kumaraswamy had said in July last year that he was not happy being the chief minister and "I have swallowed poison like Lord Vishakantha (Shiva)."
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
