GT Devegowda sulks after JD(S) legislature party leader snub

Mysuru, NT Bureau: JD(S) MLA from Chamundeshwari GT Devegowda is said to be unhappy with the party’s top brass and is therefore staying away from the outfit’s programmes.

GT Devegowda, who is also the JD(S) core committee chairman, is allegedly sulking because he wasn’t chosen as the legislature party leader as successor to HD Kumaraswamy, who quit as the Channapatna MLA after he won from the Mandya Lok Sabha segment and became a Union Minister.

Kumaraswamy also holds the post of the JD(S) state president. The strongman MLA is conspicuously absent from the joint padayatra (march) with the BJP. The march got underway from Bengaluru on Saturday and is slated to finish in Devegowda’s home district of Mysuru.

However, his son and Hunsur MLA Harish Gowda has been attending party programmes as usual. The march is supposed to highlight Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s alleged involvement in purported scams in the Valmiki Corporation and Mysore Urban Development Authority (MUDA).

However, GT Devegowda’s absence in the march is less than ideal at a crucial time. In public, Devegowda had said that there were no hard feelings over him not landing the legislature party leader’s post.

JD(S) MLA CB Suresh Babu, who represents Chikkanayakanahalli, had landed the post instead. Devegowda said that he had congratulated Babu for landing the legislature party leader’s post.

Non-Vokkaliga MLA chosen Devegowda had pointed out that most leaders who occupied important positions in JD(S), including himself, came from the Vokkaliga caste and people from other communities should be given a chance. Babu comes from the Kuruba caste, which comes under the Other Backward Class (OBC) category.

“They must have made the appointment because we can’t only depend on Vokkaligas,” Devegowda said. The latest instance of internal friction is a throwback to Kumaraswamy not appointing Cabinet colleague GT Devegowda as Mysuru district in-charge minister back in 2018.

Kumaraswamy, who had been the Chief Minister, had picked SR Mahesh instead. Devegowda had proved to be a giant killer by defeating Siddaramaiah from Chamundeshwari earlier.