Former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda on Wednesday said that his relationship with Prime Minister Narendra Modi was not tied to a Rajya Sabha seat and would continue regardless of whether he remained a member of the Upper House.
Gowda’s remarks come in the backdrop of the Congress criticising the BJP, an ally of the JDS, for not nominating Gowda to the Rajya Sabha once again, and instead naming its own party nominee to the Upper House.
While Gowda, 93, didn’t react to the Congress leadership terming the development as “insult and humiliation”, the JDS patriarch clarified to reporters in Bengaluru on Wednesday that he had not asked for renomination.
On Tuesday, the BJP leadership gave a Rajya Sabha ticket to Prof. M. Nagaraja, former state vice-president of the BJP and also a former member of the Karnataka Public Service Commission.
Gowda, after losing the 2019 Lok Sabha elections from Tumakuru, entered the Rajya Sabha with Congress support despite political differences. All eyes were on Gowda on how he would react after being denied a seat in the Upper House.
Gowda addressed a media briefing at the JDS office at JP Bhavan in Bengaluru.
“I had no regrets over not continuing in the Rajya Sabha. My association with PM Modi was not driven by political considerations. People of this state and this country should not think that my relationship with Modi depends on a Rajya Sabha seat,” said Gowda, whose Rajya Sabha term ends on June 25.
Gowda recalled that he had vehemently criticised Modi over the Godhra issue when the latter was the chief minister of Gujarat. “But after Modi became Prime Minister, our relationship developed. That relationship over the last 10 years was not built for the sake of a Rajya Sabha seat. It is a personal rapport we share.”
Stating that he had welcomed Union minister and his son H.D. Kumaraswamy’s declaration that the JDS, with only 18 MLAs in the Karnataka Assembly, would not seek a Rajya Sabha seat, Gowda said there was no reason for the party to insist on a berth when the BJP, with 63 legislators, could comfortably secure one.