HD Kumaraswamy, former chief minister of Karnataka, tells KUNAL MAJUMDER why the JD(S) lost the recent Bengaluru municipal polls
Why did you lose the Bengaluru election?
In the last 10-15 years, our opponents have succeeded in misleading the people of Bengaluru into thinking that our party is against the city’s development. Money too played a major role in this election. That’s one factor why we lost.
The JD(S) is increasingly regarded as anti-development.
Nobody can question the contribution of [my father] Deve Gowda as a minister, chief minister and then prime minister towards the development of Bengaluru. As chief minister, I have undertaken major developmental activities for the city. But unfortunately, all those things were forgotten during this election. The decision to use water from the Kaveri river for Bengaluru was taken by my father as prime minister. Earlier, when the Congress government was in Delhi, they had rejected the same proposal. Then Deve Gowda gave permission to complete the Ring Road using 90 acres of defence land. The first flyover started when he was chief minister. He had also planned to start the monorail in Bengaluru, but SM Krishna [Chief Minister from 1999 to 2004] cancelled the proposal and went in for a metro. My father took lots of steps to create infrastructure in Bengaluru city.
Read the rest in Tehelka issue dated April 17, 2010
Why did you lose the Bengaluru election?
In the last 10-15 years, our opponents have succeeded in misleading the people of Bengaluru into thinking that our party is against the city’s development. Money too played a major role in this election. That’s one factor why we lost.
The JD(S) is increasingly regarded as anti-development.
Nobody can question the contribution of [my father] Deve Gowda as a minister, chief minister and then prime minister towards the development of Bengaluru. As chief minister, I have undertaken major developmental activities for the city. But unfortunately, all those things were forgotten during this election. The decision to use water from the Kaveri river for Bengaluru was taken by my father as prime minister. Earlier, when the Congress government was in Delhi, they had rejected the same proposal. Then Deve Gowda gave permission to complete the Ring Road using 90 acres of defence land. The first flyover started when he was chief minister. He had also planned to start the monorail in Bengaluru, but SM Krishna [Chief Minister from 1999 to 2004] cancelled the proposal and went in for a metro. My father took lots of steps to create infrastructure in Bengaluru city.
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