Deve Gowda, Kumaraswamy 'most opportunistic' politicians: Former Karnataka chief minister Yeddyurappa

Launching a scathing attack on Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy and former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda, state BJP president BS Yeddyurappa on Tuesday accused them of being the "most opportunistic" politicians in the country. He also attacked the Janata Dal (Secular)-Congress government in the state on the farmers' issues and extended his party's full support to the cause by calling for a statewide agitation on Wednesday. Yeddyurappa said that Gowda and Kumaraswamy were synonymous with "betrayal".

Chief Minister Kumaraswamy, you and Deve Gowda are most opportunistic" politicians in the country," Yeddyurappa said, while attacking the duo for repeatedly not keeping their promises. They say I had gone to their door to make me chief minister, you should be ashamed to make such statements," he said, recalling that it was Kumaraswamy who quit the Dharm Singh lead Congress-JD(S) coalition in 2006 and joined hands withthe BJP to form the coalition government.

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The former chief minister also hit out at Kumaraswamy for a remark he made against a protesting woman farmer at Belagavi on Sunday. "It is shameful on the part of the chief minister to make a disgraceful remark against a woman farmer. It is also arrogance to call the protesting farmers goondas and dacoits," Yeddyurappa said as quoted by PTI. Describing the chief minister's remarks against the woman "derogatory", he lashed out at Kumaraswamy for trying to defend it.

Farmers are protesting in Belagavi for the past few days demanding clearance of their pending arrears by sugar factories for the cane supplied and announcement of purchase price for sugarcane for the current season. They had intensified their protest Sunday by "gatecrashing" their loaded trucks into "Suvarna Vidhana Soudha", the legislature complex in northern district, protesting Kumaraswamy's cancellation of his scheduled visit to meet them.

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He said those in public life should gracefully accept criticisms. Farmers protested the way they did as the chief minister backtracked from his promise, he said. "Power seems to have gone into the chief minister's head," he said, adding that Congress leaders who are supporting Kumaraswamy's government should think over the CM's remarks. "If they have self-respect they should ask the CM to implement the decisions or quit the post," Yeddyurappa said.

In a strong reaction, Kumaraswamy had described those who barged into the legislature complex as "goondas" and accused them of defaming the entire farming community. He had also made remarks against a woman farmer while questioning her 'silence' in the past four years on the arrears issue and her farming background.