Deve Gowda `suspended’ from JD

Special Correspondent

Surendra Mohan requested to take over as new president

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The anti-Deve Gowda faction in the Janata Dal (Secular) has removed the former Prime Minister from presidentship of the party and suspended Mr. Gowda, his son and Karnataka Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy and 39 Karnataka MLAs from the primary membership of the party for six years.

A meeting of the party national executive committee held here on Friday, stated to have been attended by 28 out of the 49 existing members, also decided to request veteran socialist leader Surendra Mohan to take over as president of the party. It also constituted a three-member Disciplinary Action Committee headed by Puducherry JD(S) leader Ganesh. "Deve Gowda is no longer Janata Dal (Secular), as he has sacrificed the basic principles of secularism," M.P. Veerendrakumar, the moving force behind the anti-Gowda initiative, told reporters after the national executive meeting.

Mr. Surendra Mohan said that besides the 28 national executive committee members who attended Friday’s meeting, three more would join the national council meeting slated for Saturday. Three other national executive members had also communicated in writing their support for the move to oust Mr. Gowda and his supporters from the party. Besides the national executive members, leaders from Karnakata, Andhra Pradesh, Puducherry, Goa, Orissa, Punjab, Uttaranchal and Delhi have already arrived here and more leaders would reach here on Saturday, The anti-Gowda leaders pointed out that Mr. Gowda had maintained a studied silence after his son joined hands with the BJP to form the Government in Karnataka after the coalition regime headed by the Congress leader Dharam Singh demitted office. Although he had suspended Mr. Kumaraswamy and the legislators who had gone with him subsequently, this was nothing but a strategy to mislead the party and the secular forces.

They said the national executive committee had ratified his decision to suspend Mr. Kumaraswamy and, therefore, he was no longer a member of the Janata Dal (Secular).

PTI reports from New Delhi:

The Janata Dal (Secular) on Friday called the expulsion of Mr. Deve Gowda by the rebels as a joke. Mr. Gowda had on Thursday dissolved the Kerala unit headed by suspended dissident leader M.P. Veerendrakumar, who was a major force behind the convening of Friday’s meeting.