New Delhi: Former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda on Wednesday responded to Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge’s dig at him for choosing the Bharatiya Janata Party as his coalition partner instead of the Congress.Hours after Kharge’s address in the Rajya Sabha, Deve Gowda wrote a letter saying that she had a “forced marriage” with the grand old party, but she had to “divorce” him as it was an “abusive relationship”.The letter reads, “My dear and long-time friend, Shri Mallikarjun Kharge made a light-hearted comment in Parliament today that I ‘loved’ them (Congress), but ultimately ‘married’ Modi ji (BJP). He also said that he did not know the reason why I did so. I was not in the House when Shri Kharge was speaking, as I had to go to Bengaluru to attend tomorrow’s Ugadi celebrations.”He said, “If I had to answer my friend in the language of marriage, I would like to say that I had a ‘forced marriage’ with Congress, but I had to ‘divorce’ him because it was an abusive relationship.”Additionally, the former prime minister accused the Congress of “abandoning” his party in 2018 after it offered the post of Karnataka chief minister to Deve Gowda’s son Kumaraswamy.He said, “Mr Kharge would remember that in 2018 the Congress had sent Mr Ghulam Nabi Azad and offered the post of Chief Minister to Mr Kumaraswamy. I did not agree to it. I had said in the presence of everyone that Mr Kharge should be made the Chief Minister. Mr Siddaramaiah was also there. However, Mr Azad insisted on Mr Kumaraswamy’s leadership. But after this song, dance and a wedding, what did he do in 2019? He left us. Gave.”He said, “How many Congress MLAs defected to the BJP and who sent them is now common knowledge. If the Congress had taken action against the person who instigated the defection that day, my friend Mr. Kharge would have been in a better position as AICC President today. So, to keep the record straight, I did not leave the Congress alliance. It was he who left. He left me no option but to ‘divorce’ him and look for a more stable alliance.”Earlier in the day, Mallikarjun Kharge, speaking during his farewell, said he had known Deve Gowda for over 54 years and had worked closely with him before the former PM’s party formed an alliance with the BJP.“I have known Deve Gowda ji for more than 54 years and have worked with him a lot. Later, I don’t know what happened… ‘Woh mohabbat hamare saath kiye, shaadi Modi sahab ke saath,'” Kharge said, drawing laughter from fellow MPs and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.Deve Gowda became Prime Minister in 1996 at the head of the Congress-backed United Front government, marking an important phase of cooperation. In Karnataka, his party, the JD(S), subsequently alternated between opposing and partnering with the Congress.Earlier in the day, PM Modi also addressed the House, thanked the outgoing members for their contributions and expressed similar sentiments.The Prime Minister urged retired MPs to continue contributing to public life, saying, “There is no full stop in politics. The future is waiting for you.” He also called upon the newly elected members to learn from senior leaders like Deve Gowda, Kharge and Sharad Pawar, keeping in mind their decades of parliamentary experience.PM Modi also praised Ramdas Athawale for his intelligence and remarked that humor and satire in the House has diminished in recent years, but it is alive because of personalities like him. Athawale is among the 37 members who are completing their tenure, along with Priyanka Chaturvedi, Tiruchi Siva and Abhishek Manu Singhvi.The retirements took place after elections for 37 Rajya Sabha seats in 10 states, in which 26 candidates were elected unopposed. Political developments in states like Bihar, where the absence of the opposition helped the NDA, have further reshaped the composition of the Upper House.