Poojary demands retirement of Gowda

Bangalore, Apr 10 (UNI) Senior Congress leader and former Union Minister Janardhana Poojary today asked Janata Dal (Secular) President H D Deve Gowda to retire from politics as he has surrendered secularism after his party joined hands with the ''communal'' BJP and his son and Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy was acting at that party's behest.

''Once Mr Gowda was telling that he was ready to sacrifice everything to uphold the principle of secularism, but now he has allowed his son to join hands with the BJP and Mr Kumaraswamy has completely surrendered... He has failed to act despite atrocities committed by Bajrang Dal, a wing of BJP, recently at Bhatkal and failed to solve the Idgah Maiden issue,'' he told newspersons here.

To a question, Mr Poojary alleged that Mr Gowda was blackmailing Mr N Dharam Singh, heading the previous Congress-JD(S) coalition Government, on secular grounds, but was now keeping mum as his ambition of making his son Chief Minister had been fulfilled. Alleging that Mr Kumaraswamy had become inactive, he claimed that though the Supreme Court gave a good opportunity to find a solution to solve the Idgah Maidan issue, MR Kumarswamy failed to act at the instance of the BJP, which wanted to keep the issue alive to gain political mileage. Besides, he failed to take action on those perpetrating communal violence in Bhatkal recently, M R Poojary added UNI MSP GD SC VC2025