Published Mar 18, 2026 | 7:55 PM ⚊ Updated Mar 18, 2026 | 7:55 PM
Deve Gowda was first elected to the Karnataka Assembly as an independent, winning against a Congress candidate.
Synopsis: JD(S) supremo HD Deve Gowda has quipped that his long association with the Congress was an “abusive relationship” needing a “divorce”, after AICC president Mallikarjuna Kharge had earlier in the day wondered why Gowda, after having had “mohabbat” with his party, “married” Prime Minister Narendra Modi. In a lengthy, mirthful response, Gowda said his party did not desert the alliance, but that it was the Congress that “walked away.”
Former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda has responded to AICC President Mallikarjuna Kharge, wondering why the former “married” the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi when he loved and had “mohabbat” with the Congress.
“I would like to say that I was in a ‘forced marriage’ with the Congress but had to ‘divorce’ them because it was an abusive relationship,” the The Janata Dal (Secular) president wrote in an open letter on the evening of Wednesday, 18 March.
The riffs between the two began earlier in the day when Kharge joined his fellow Rajya Sabha members, who are set to retire from the Upper House between April and July, delivering his farewell address. He said his time in the House as Leader of Opposition had enriched him and took particular note of Gowda and NCP founder Sharad Pawar, both of whom are among the 59 members whose terms are ending.
“I have known Deve Gowda for a long time, for more than 54 years, and I have worked with him. But I don’t know what happened. He fell in love with us but married Prime Minister Narendra Modi. This happened recently,” Kharge then quipped, drawing laughter from Modi and across the political aisle.
The veteran Congress leader was obliquely referring to Gowda’s lifelong association, either as a party member or through alliances with the Congress.
Having started his political career with the Congress in the early fifties, Gowda was first elected to the Karnataka Assembly as an independent, winning against a Congress candidate.
He later joined the Congress (O) following the party’s split in 1969 and came to the fore as an opposition leader during the chief ministership of Devaraj Urs, a Congress (I) stalwart.
He then helped the Janata Party assume power in the state twice, first serving as a minister under Ramakrishna Hegde in 1983 and then as Chief Minister in 1994.
He left his post to become the 11th prime minister of India in 1996, heading a coalition of non-Congress and non-BJP regional parties, with outside support from the Congress. The coalition collapsed less than a year later after the Congress pulled its support.
A lifelong secular politician, a vast majority of Deve Gowda’s career was opposed to the BJP and Sangh Parivar. He is also said to have refused the BJP’s offer of external support to his government at the Centre when the Congress pulled out.
In 2004, his newly founded JD(S) formed a coalition with the Congress to form the government, but it was brought down when his son, first-time MLA HD Kumaraswamy, joined hands with the BJP to form a government and led it for 20 months.
It was the first time the BJP was in power in Karnataka. The coalition did not last, however, as Kumaraswamy refused to share the chief ministerial post with the BJP, reportedly on Deve Gowda’s instructions.
The resulting crisis triggered a general election, where the BJP, riding a sympathy wave earned from the fiasco, formed a government on its own under BS Yediyurappa.
The JD(S), meanwhile, had to wait a decade to taste power once again.
Gowda, who was not present in the Upper House during Kharge’s speech, having returned to Bengaluru for Ugadi celebrations, responded with equal mirth.
“My dear and longtime friend, Shri Mallikarjun Kharge, made a light-hearted comment in Parliament today about me having been in “love” with them (Congress) but “married” Modi Ji (BJP) eventually. He also said he did not know the reason why I did so,” Gowda wrote.
“Shri Kharge will remember that in 2018, Congress sent Shri Ghulam Nabi Azad and offered Shri Kumaraswamy the chief ministership. I did not consent to this. I said in everybody’s presence that Shri Kharge should be made Chief Minister. Shri Siddaramaiah was also there. However, Shri Azad insisted on Shri Kumaraswamy’s leadership. But after all this song, dance and a wedding, what did they do in 2019? They dumped us.”
My dear friend Shri. @kharge made a humorous comment in parliament today on my “love” for @INCIndia and “marriage” with @BJP4India. I was not there in the House when he spoke. Here’s my response both lighthearted and factual on why I was forced to “divorce” the Congress @PMOIndia pic.twitter.com/qPK95FUxip
— H D Devegowda (@H_D_Devegowda) March 18, 2026
The alliance still went ahead, and HD Kumaraswamy once again formed a coalition government with the Congress before it collapsed in 2019 after several Congress and JD(S) MLAs defected to the BJP.
“How many Congress MLAs defected to the BJP and who sent them across is now common knowledge. If Congress had acted against the person who instigated the defections that day, today my friend, Shri Kharge, would be in a better position as AICC President,” Gowda said.
“So to put the record straight, I did not desert the Congress alliance. It is they who walked away. They left me with no choice but to “divorce” them and seek a more stable alliance.”
(Edited by Dese Gowda)
