Deve Gowda backs Rahul for PM

BENGALURU: Janata Dal (Secular) patriarch HD Deve Gowda has said his party has no hesitation in backing Congress president Rahul Gandhi for the Prime Minister’s post. Deve Gowda, however, said Gandhi should be care- ful about the language he uses to attack his political opponents. “Any language that hurts the office of the PM– nobody should use such language [such as “chowkidaar chor hai”],” the former PM said in an interview.

On a Congress-jd(s) seat-sharing pact, he said: “The formula that has been adopted by the Congress after the formation of the [Karnataka] government is one-third for us on all issues. A third of 28 Lok Sabha seats is 10. Decide this seat-sharing quickly, this should be over because we should tour the state.”