Bengaluru: “My intention is to bring a regional party like Janata Dal (S) to power on its own strength in Karnataka, as both the national parties — the Congress and the BJP — are under-performers,” said former Prime Minister and JD (S) National President HD Deve Gowda.
“We will use the image of the party’s Karnataka unit President HD Kumaraswamy to woo voters to give our party the majority in the 2018 Assembly elections,” Gowda said speaking at the meet-the-press programme organised by Press Club of Bengaluru.
Gowda claimed that national political parties have failed to safeguard the interests of the States and regional parties ruling them was the way out. “JDS is educating and bringing it before the the people to decide before voting in the elections.”
Alleging that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had failed to fulfil the promises he made during the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections in 2014, Gowda said: “The real benefits of Start-up, Make in India schemes have not reached those for whom it was meant. Had Modi been successful in fulfilling his promises, was there a need for him to pitch a tent in Varanasi for a long period to ensure the BJP fares better in the polls.”
He said Modi did not become the Prime Minister because of the backing of either the BJP or the RSS, but by the backing of ‘five’ major corporates based in Gujarat. “Later, without opposing it the senior BJP leaders and the RSS supported him and agreed that he be the Prime Minister. But such ploy by the BJP or the RSS will not last long in the political arena.”
To a question on if there is any effort to strengthen the third front in the country, Gowda said “Defeat of the two national parties had not been a success so far.”
Advice to SM Krishna
The former Prime Minister also advised former Congress leader SM Krishna to ‘think twice’ before joining the BJP.
Though Krishna, who quit the Congress recently, has not openly disclosed his decision of joining any political party, BJP State President BS Yeddyurappa recently met him and said that he has extended an official invitation to him to join the BJP and he had also agreed.
Gowda cautioned Krishna that other senior leaders who had quit Congress and joined the BJP were sidelined after the later took full mileage of their stature.