Deve Gowda has lost people's support: Siddaramaiah

Kolar, Karnataka, Feb 18 (UNI) Congress leader and former Deputy Chief Minister Siddaramaiah today said that Janata Dal(S) President H D Deve Gowda had lost people's favour and challenged him to seek a fresh mandate in Karnataka to prove his popularity.

Speaking at a rally in this town as part of Ahinda conference of backward class people, he said Mr Gowda should go for snap polls if he believes that the 58 seats JD(S) won in the last Assembly elections was due to his popularity.

''JD(S) was able to win so much of its seats only because of the fact that people from all walks of life, especially the backward class and minority people supported the party,'' he said.

Reiterating his earlier statement that Mr Gowda would not allow change of guard and handover Chief Ministership to BJP as per the understanding of the JDS-BJP coailitaion government in Karnataka, he said that he would opt for fresh election if BJP demands change of guard after the expiry of 20 months.

Making a reference to Cauvery water sharing dispute Siddaramaiah took the former Prime Minister to task stating that he has not uttered a single word about the dispute only to save his son Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy from embarassment.

KPCC President Mallikarjuna Kharge, in his address virtually kicked off the campaign for the upcoming civic body elections and called upon the people to support the Congress.

UNI