Hitting out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP President Amit Shah, Gowda alleged that BJP had “joined hands” with Congress to win the second seat in the council election.
“Modi and Shah speak across the country about Congress-free India, what are they doing here in Karnataka? They have joined hands with Congress to win the second seat in the Council elections,” he said.
Congress had won all four seats it contested in Council elections from the Assembly, while BJP managed to win both the seats for which it had fielded candidates and JD(S) could win only one seat.
JD(S) state president and former chief minister H D Kumaraswamy was absent in the meeting but his message to party workers was read out, in which he called rebels as 'Mir Sadiq' (a minister who betrayed Mysore ruler Tipu Sultan paving the way for a British victory in Anglo-Mysore war).
Party sources said Kumaraswamy was travelling abroad for production related work of the movie 'Jaguar' starring his son Nikhil.
JD(S) has been rocked by “dissidence” in recent months with several of its MLAs unhappy with the leadership over its style of functioning and “unilateral” decisions by the Gowda family which maintains a stranglehold over the party.
Congress with 122 members was assured of two seats for Jairam Ramesh and Oscar Fernandes, but with a surplus of 33 votes, the party fielded Ramamurthy, banking on JD(S) rebels and Independents. The required strength for victory was 45 votes.
Even hours before the Rajya Sabha polls ended, the party had admitted that there was cross-voting by its eight rebels, who also publicly said they voted for Congress.
