Deve Gowda: Proposed Mallikarjun Kharge as Karnataka CM, but Sonia Gandhi said no

Mandya: With less than one month to go for the first phase of Lok Sabha elections, former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda made a startling revelation about the Congress denying Karnataka chief minister’s position to senior leader Mallikarjun Kharge.

On his son Kumaraswamy being made as the chief minister, Gowda said he was not in favour of the decision as the JD(S) had got only 38 seats and was not well due to heart ailment. He said that it was the Congress leader and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi who proposed the name of Kumaraswamy as chief minister. "I proposed the name of Mallikarjun  Kharge but the Congress leaders in Delhi did not agree and wanted Kumaraswamy as CM," he said in Mandya after launching his grandson Nikhil Kumaraswamy into politics.