Bengaluru: With  Chamundeshwari JD(S) MLA G.T. Devegowda (GTD) maintaining a distance from party leaders and party affairs for the past couple of months reportedly due to serious differences with top brass, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has made an open call to GTD asking him to leave JD(S).

Addressing a poll rally at Doddamalur near Channapatna on behalf of Channapatna Congress candidate C.P. Yogeshwar yesterday, Siddaramaiah said that GTD, who is an old friend of his, should come out of JD(S) as JD(S) leadership will not allow any other party leader to grow, except the family members of H.D. Deve Gowda clan.

Maintaining that JD(S) supremo Deve Gowda, who is also a former PM,  had finished off top  leaders such as B.L. Shankar, C. Byregowda  and Y.K. Ramaiah, the CM wondered if the former PM will ever spare GTD.

“I have cautioned GTD to be weary of JD(S) leaders as both Deve Gowda and his son H.D. Kumaraswamy will not let fellow Vokkaliga community leaders to reach the top. There are many other Janata Parivar leaders like K.N. Nagegowda, B.N. Bachchegowda and Varadegowda,  who were forced to leave the party because of the tantrums of Gowda family. Now the JD(S) supremo is out to politically finish off  Deputy CM D.K. Shivakumar and his brother D.K. Suresh, a former MP, either by hook or crook”, he said adding that he would never have become CM had he remained in JD(S).

Accusing the former PM of carrying out a false propaganda that the Congress Guarantee Schemes would stop after the bypolls, Siddaramaiah said the Opposition leaders are jealous of him because he became CM for second time. Asserting that Deve Gowda would not have become Karnataka CM in 1994, but for him and veteran leader R.L. Jalappa, he said that the ex-PM may have forgotten this.

The CM appealed the Channapatna Constituency electorate not to fall prey to the false tears of JD(S) leaders and to vote for the Congress candidate C.P. Yogeshwar.