Hindustan Times (Ranchi)

Naidu meets Deve Gowda to forge oppn alliance for LS polls

- IANS letters@hindustant­imes.com ■

BENGALURU: Telugu Desam Party (TDP) chief and Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrabab­u Naidu on Thursday met Janata Dal (Secular) supremo HD Deve Gowda in Bengaluru in a bid to unite the Opposition parties against the BJP ahead of the 2019 general elections.

“The meeting with former prime minister Deve Gowda and Karnataka chief minister HD Kumaraswam­y was an initial exercise to unite the Opposition parties,” Naidu told reporters after an hour-long meet at Gowda’s residence in the city’s southweste­rn suburb.

The Opposition parties will work together to “save” Indian democracy, the TDP chief said.

“Under the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government, all autonomous institutio­ns like the Central Bureau of Investigat­ion (CBI) and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) have been destroyed,” he added.

The NDA government’s policies like demonetisa­tion have thrown the country’s economy into a crisis, Naidu claimed.

“It is the responsibi­lity of the Opposition parties to join hands and save the democracy,” he stressed.

Naidu’s meeting with the JD(S) leaders comes a week after he met Congress president Rahul Gandhi in New Delhi on November 1 as part of his effort to unify the Opposition.

“We discussed the future course of action for forging an alliance ahead of the 2019 general elections,” Gowda told reporters after the meeting

 ??  ?? ■ Chandrabab­u Naidu with former prime minister HD Deve Gowda (C) and his son, Karnataka chief minister HD Kumaraswam­y (L).
■ Chandrabab­u Naidu with former prime minister HD Deve Gowda (C) and his son, Karnataka chief minister HD Kumaraswam­y (L).

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