Trouble ahead for Deve Gowda? Expulsion from party ?

Rediff.com November 25, 2006 13:32 IST

Trouble is in store for former prime minister H D Deve Gowda with moves being made by senior leaders of Janata Dal (Secular) for his expulsion from the party for his continued support to the coalition government in Karnataka in coalition with the Bharatiya Janata Party.

M P Veerendra Kumar, leader of the Parliamentary Party, Surendra Mohan and Karnataka MLA P G R Sindhia, all National Executive members, have now convened a meeting of the National Council, the party's supreme policy-making body, by the end of December or January in Thiruvananthapuram.

This is to be followed by a national conference to take the 'logical decision' to expel Gowda from the party.

The three leaders said in a joint statement that this would be a follow-up to a decision of the February 20 meeting of the National Committee, presided over by Gowda, which suspended the MLAs, including Chief Minister H D Kumaraswami from the primary membership of the party for his decision to ally wih BJP.

In that meeting it was also recommended to the disciplinary committee for their expulsion which still stood, they said.

The three leaders appealed to all the members of the National Committee, state unit presidents and members of the state commitees who oppose Gowda to join hands to make the National Council a great success.

"We have to strengthen the platform of secularism, democracy and socialism," they said.