I have nothing to do with Sadananda: Deve Gowda

Bangalore: JDS supremo H D Deve Gowda today rubbished allegations levelled by BJP leader B S Yeddyurappa and his supporters that D V Sadananda Gowda, who resigned as Karnataka chief minister to be replaced by Jagadish Shettar, was "obeying" his party's diktat.

"I haven't spoken to Sadananda Gowda for the past seven months...I have nothing to do with him...people levelled similar allegations when Dharam Singh was the chief minister," he said.

"People said Dharam Singh ran the administration on my diktat. If that was the case, then why did H D Kumaraswamy join hands with the BJP to form the coalition government?" the former prime minister, who hails from the Vokkaliga community to which Sadananda also belonged, said.

Meanwhile, several Vokkaliga organisations staged protests in Channapatna shouting slogans against Yeddyurappa, who belongs to the Lingayat community, for being the architect behind Sadananda's ouster.

They burnt effigies of Yeddyurappa, Excise Minister M P Renukacharya and BJP president Nitin Gadkari.

To end the political impasse triggered by factional politics, the BJP central leadership had yesterday got Sadananda to resign as chief minister to be replaced by Jagadish Shettar.