Won't contest 2024 LS polls, says former PM Deve Gowda

Former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda on Saturday (January 13) said he will not contest the upcoming Lok Sabha elections because of his age.

The 90-year-old JD(S) supremo said he will campaign for candidates in the elections.

"I am not contesting the elections. I am now 90. Whichever seats we get, wherever it is necessary, I will go there. I have some strength to talk and have memory power. With that I will campaign," Gowda said in a press conference.

Regarding JD(S) state president HD Kumaraswamy contesting the Lok Sabha elections, the former prime minister said no decision has been taken yet.

He said whatever Prime Minister Narendra Modi says will be followed.

Gowda praised Modi for taking 11-day intense penance before the installation of the Lord Ram idol in the sanctum sanctorum of the newly built Ram temple in Ayodhya.

He said Modi has done lots of 'Punya' (virtues), which is why he will perform the consecration of the Ram temple with the utmost devotion and spiritual discipline.

The former prime minister said he would attend the consecration with his wife Chennamma on January 22.

The JD(S) joined the BJP-led NDA in September last year after a meeting Kumaraswamy, a former Chief Minister and Deve Gowda's son, had with Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP national president JP Nadda in New Delhi.

Both parties have said they would fight the coming Lok Sabha elections in Karnataka together.

In the elections to the 224-member Karnataka Assembly in May last year, the JD(S) put up a poor show, winning only 19 seats. The Congress bagged 135 and the BJP 66.