Gowda makes last minute appeal to rebel MLAs

Janata Dal-Secular supremo H D Deve Gowda Friday made a last minute appeal to the party rebel legislators to uphold its secular ideology and retrace their step to join hands with Bharatiya Janata Party.

In separate letters to the rebels, led by his son H D Kumaraswamy, who have decided to vote against the government in the confidence motion to be moved by Chief Minister N Dharam Singh, Gowda said it might appear to them that their decision was right, but it had come as a shock to him and affected his image.

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"I am making a final appeal to you. Party is above everything else. Time has come to uphold the party ideology," Gowda said before the chief minister sought the vote of confidence in the assembly.

Gowda said he had faced trials and tribulations in four decades of his political life and "I am also aware that you are also pained by certain developments."

Meanwhile, according to sources, Minister for Public Works Department and Energy H D Revanna, who is also Gowda's son, met Kumaraswamy, in an apparent last-ditch effort to persuade him against teaming up with BJP.