Not ours, it was Sonia’s idea says Gowda on Karnataka coalition

Bengaluru, June 21: JD(S) patriarch HD Deve Gowda said that the Karnataka coalition was the idea of UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad, not his party's.

Reacting to views expressed by some Congress leaders that the alliance was hurting both the parties, he said, "I told them we didn't want this (coalition government), but (senior Congress leaders) G Parameshwara and KH Muniyappa approached us.

(Mallikarjun) Kharge told me that he had been ordered to ensure that this happens."
Deve Gowda said he had told Congress president Rahul Gandhi that he was hurt by the repeated public utterances of some Congress leaders about the coalition government in Karnataka.

"I told him that from day one I have been watching, I'm hurt very badly. This is the first time I am telling you. You take a decision. Please request all your Karnataka leaders (not to speak in public about the government)," he said.

Asked about senior Congress leader Siddaramaiah's reported remarks after meeting Gandhi on Wednesday that the coalition is not working well and that the party would have performed better if it had contested the elections on its own, Gowda said, "I don't want to react now; there is ample time."