Mangaluru, November 5: Former Prime Minister of India H D Deve Gowda, who arrived at Mangaluru on November 5th attended a press meet held at Circuit House in the city.
“At present, JDS does not have a strong presence in Mangaluru. We have to start building it from base in order to strengthen it and I am here for the sole purpose” said H D Deve Gowda, former Prime Minister of India.
The leaders of the party organised a meeting there to discuss on measures to revitalize the party in this region.
Deve Gowda addressing the media said that personally he will visit all the 224 assembly constituencies in the state to strengthen the JDS. ‘We have three and half years span before the next assembly election. I wish to utilize this gap to improve the popularity base of JDS party and get more seats in the assembly election. Everyone should think that Deve Gowda is still working for his party even at such an advanced age.”
‘I am not retiring soon and I will attend parliamentary sessions whenever possible. It takes lot of efforts to build a party. One cannot build a party single-handedly. The effort requires public support. I believe that JDS has the potential to enlarge here. I opine that the party will get good results in future from this region, he added.
Deve Gowda speaking about Kumaraswamy’s tenure as chief minister of Karnataka said, ‘When Kumaraswamy was the chief minister, he strived for the society and massesand has undertaken a lot of betterment programmes. He always prefers to fight against injustice and continues to stick to this principle even now.
Speaking about women empowerment, he said, ‘Modi gives first priority to women empowerment. When I was the prime minister, my top priority was the same and even now this happens to be close to my heart’.
Deve Gowda who briefed about the election of new JDS state president, said that he will elect a suitable person for this post within two weeks, and added that women candidates will be given the priority while choosing the state president.
Speaking about the various sexual harassment cases taking place in the state he lamented, “Law and order situation in Karnataka has worsened. Since the past 1.5 years, newspapers have been full of news items relating to murder, suicide and sexual harassment news. The government has not taken these issues seriously”.
He added, ‘Everyone knows that people join parties to get power or post’.
Regarding the black money he said, “Lot of scams are happening in India and the government has failed to bring the culprits under law”.
During the press meet, JDS leader M B Sadashiva, city corporator, Aziz and others were present.
