Bengaluru, 10 June

Former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda on Wednesday said that his relationship with Prime Minister Narendra Modi would continue irrespective of whether or not he was a Rajya Sabha member.

The two leaders’ relationship was a personal bond forged over the last decade, the JD(S) supremo said.

His remarks come after the Congress attacked the BJP for not nominating Deve Gowda to the Upper House and instead fielding its own candidate, Prof M Nagaraja.

“People of this State and this country should not think that my relationship with Modi depends on a Rajya Sabha seat,” Gowda said.

“In 2014, when Modi won 282 Lok Sabha seats and could have formed a government on his own, he still chose to form the NDA government along with allies,” Deve Gowda said.

He noted that he had strongly criticised Modi over the Godhra issue (Gujarat riots) when the latter was chief minister of that state, but said their association had grown over the years. “But after he became Prime Minister, our relationship developed. That relationship over the last 10 years was not built for the sake of a Rajya Sabha seat. It is a personal bond.”

“Let us be frank. I do not think there is any other leader today who can compete with Modi,” he added. “Internationally too, Modi is recognised as a major leader.”