Gowda on cash-for-vote: What if MLAs asked for money? They need it for polls!

Bengaluru, Jun 4: In a shocking admission, former prime minister and Janata Dal (Secular) leader H D Deve Gowda said that corruption is part of Indian politics and questioned what was the big deal in his party members asking for money to vote.

“Don't unnecessarily go on harassing as if you are going to clean up the system in this country... In this country politics itself involves corruption," Mr Gowda told news channels, whose sting operation exposed four Karnataka MLAs attempt to sell their votes for crores of rupees ahead of Rajya Sabha polls.

The two JD(S) legislators — Mallikarjun Khuba (Basavakalyan), G.T. Deve Gowda (Chamundeshwari) — were shown negotiating for rates ranging from Rs. 5 crore and above for their vote. Two other legislators caught on tape were B.R. Patil (Aland) from the Karnataka Janata Paksha and Varthur Prakash (Kolar), an Independent.

Mr Gowda said that the sting was a political conspiracy against his regional party. He also asked what was the big deal in his party members asking for money to vote..

“They think that JD(S) can be destroyed by this type of foul method?... What if my MLAs asked for money?... MLAs need money to fight elections,” he said.

On the other hand, Mr Gowda's son H?D?Kumaraswamy has termed the sting operation on RS polls “pre-planned.”

Speaking to reporters at Managuli in Vijayapura taluk Mr Kumaraswamy said that the episode had come to light only after the meeting between legislator Zameer Ahmed and Digvijaya Singh, who is in charge of Congress affairs in Karnataka.

“We had written to the Election Commission of India last week itself about possibilities of malpractice in the elections. But, the incident has come to light now. There are chances of the ECI deferring the elections, considering the issue seriously,” he said, adding that all the MLAs of the party were taken into confidence while writing to the ECI.