"Made A Mistake By...": Veerappa Moily Attacks Deve Gowda, HD Kumaraswamy

Former Karnataka Chief Minister and Congress leader Veerappa Moily took a hit at JD (S) Chief HD Deve Gowda and his son JDS-BJP candidate HD Kumaraswamy and said that the Congress made a mistake by supporting the duo from the Gowda family.

Veerappa Moily said that the Congress party supported and put the most "undeserving" people to power as the Karnataka Chief Minister and the Prime Minister of the country.

Reacting to HD Kumaraswamy's claims of Congress treating the JD (S) badly, Veerappa Moily said," I guess he is right. We made Deve Gowda the Prime Minister by giving him the support of 200 MPs. Yes, we made a mistake by making Kumaraswamy the chief minister (of Karnataka). We made the most underserving people the PM and the CM."

This comes after HD Kumaraswamy in a podcast with ANI, claimed that the Congress party treated the JD (S) poorly.

While discussing Deve Gowda's political journey, HD Kumaraswamy said, "In 2018 Deve Gowda ji joined hands with Congress. Throughout his career of 60-62 years, he has always aligned with secular forces. By using regional parties, Congress has destroyed several regional parties. Congress has humiliated Deve Gowda ji in several ways."

"In 1995, when this United Front supported Devagoda Ji as a PM candidate, they (the Congress) did not. When they removed him, they had no reason at all. Even at that time, he also supported Inder Kumar Gujral. In 2004, again, they ditched Deve Gowda Ji. That time also, he respected Congress, even though, at that time, Arun Jaitley met him to join hands with BJP. Deve Gowda ji rejected it. At that time, he also joined hands with Congress and after joining, he watched how they treated him for 20 months. Even at that time, the health of Deve Gowda Ji deteriorated," he added.

When asked why his party did that, he said he made several wrong decisions by trusting his Congress friends. "I am totally against Congress. I know how they are going to treat us and how they treated me as the Chief Minister."

Hitting back at the Congress' remark where it slammed the JD (S) for joining hands with the NDA and opined that the party should write to the Election Commission and drop the word 'secular' from their party's name, HD Kumaraswamy said, "What is the meaning of secularism? I wanted to question the Congress. Every day they are misusing the caste composition; they are using the caste composition and they want to get benefit from it for their party."

Karnataka, which has 28 Lok Sabha seats, will vote in two phases on April 26 and May 7.

In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the Congress and JD(S) fought together against the BJP. The BJP had won a record 25 seats; Congress and JD(S) won just one seat each.

The Lok Sabha Elections 2024 are being held in seven phases starting on April 19.

The counting of votes is on June 4.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)