Siddu woos Chikkaballapura voters, questions Deve Gowda

NT Correspondent

Chikkaballapura: Chief Minister Siddaramaiah sought to woo the electorate of Chikkballapura district by trying to question the credibility of JD(S) patriarch HD Deve Gowda.

The CM also tried to hard sell the guarantees before a crowd in Chintamani town in Chikkaballapura district on Wednesday. The comments come mere months ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.

“Former Prime Minister Deve Gowda had earlier announced that he will leave the country if (Narendra) Modi became Prime Minister and that he would like to be born as a Muslim in the next life. However, he has now joined hands with the BJP. Now, Deve Gowda is saying that he and Modi have an inseparable relationship. It would be better if Deve Gowda removes the word secular from his party's name,” Siddaramaiah said.

“Taking a bold step towards women’s empowerment, the government has so far registered 2,99,152 applicants in Chikkaballapura district under the Gruha Lakshmi scheme. Out of this, Rs 304.12 crores have been transferred to 2,75,330 women beneficiaries. Out of this, 66,000 women have been registered in Chintamani taluk and Rs 80 crores have been deposited in their accounts,” he added.

Higher Education Minister and Chikkaballapura District In-charge Minister Dr MC Sudhakar, Social Welfare Minister HC Mahadevappa, Revenue Minister Krishna Byre Gowda, Urban Development Minister Byrathi Suresh, Political Secretaries to the Chief Minister and Member of the Legislative Council Naseer Ahmed, Chairman of the Guarantee Schemes Committee of the Government of Karnataka HM Revanna, MLAs SN Subbareddy, PA Pradeep Eshwar, BN Ravikumar, KH Puttaswamy Gowda, KY Nanjegowda, Members of Legislative Council YA Narayanaswamy, Chidananda M Gowda, ML Anilkumar and others attended the programme.