Karnataka - Bidar

‘Kumaraswamy unanimous choice for State JD(S) post’

BIDAR: The former Prime Minister and national president of Janata Dal (Secular) H.D. Deve Gowda on Sunday said, “It will take time to shape the new party leadership to lead Janata Dal (Secular) in the State.”

Mr. Gowda was responding to a question whether newly-elected State Janata Dal (Secular) president H.D. Kumaraswamy was the only person to lead the party in the State.

Talking to presspersons here, Mr. Gowda referred to Barack Obama’s victory in the U.S. presidential election by saying, “It took a black person 200 years to occupy the top post.” Mr. Gowda said that at the meeting to elect party’s State unit president, 24 MLAs, 11 MLCs, former ministers, former MLAs, and district-unit party presidents “unanimously chose Mr. Kumaraswamy to be the new president of the party”.

Mr. Gowda said the names of former Ministers Basavaraj Horatti and Iqbal Ansari came up for discussion, but ultimately, Mr. Kumaraswamy was appointed in consideration of his work as the former Chief Minister of the State. According to Mr. Gowda, party leaders were of the opinion that Mr. Kumaraswamy’s pro-people programmes were fresh in people’s mind, and under his leadership, the party could be strengthened in the State. Mr. Gowda said people of the State had started to compare Mr. Kumaraswamy’s rule to that of Bharatiya Janata Party’s which came to power five months ago.

He criticised Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa for “not doing anything” to improve farmers’ condition after having taken the oath in the name of farmers. In Hassan district, the Deputy Commissioner had submitted a report on the plight of potato farmers; across the State, sugarcane farmers had been staging protests, and grape growers had been reeling under loss, he said

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