Offered Congress post of Chief Minister says Deve Gowda

A day after his son made the comment that he was indebted to the Congress and not the people, H D Deve Gowda said that the post of Chief Minister had first been offered by him to the Congress.

Gowda while defending his son, Kumaraswamy's shocking statement said that the Congress is the major party and the JD(S) the minority. We did not ask for us, they came to us instead he said. I said there should be a Congress chief minister and we would support that. There's nothing to hide. We weren't in a hurry to come to power," Gowda
told reporters.

It was Ghulam Nabi Azad who said that their high command had decided that Kumaraswamy would be Chief Minister, Gowda further said.

On Sunday, Kumaraswamy said he was indebted to the Congress and not the people, in the context of his inability to announce a farm loan waiver on his own. He faced much flak for this, with the opposition BJP also taking potshots at him. Kumaraswamy said he would resign if he could not take a decision on the farm loan waiver in a week's time.