Bengaluru: A sense of political slugfest had begun between former chief minister Siddaramaiah and JD(S) family. Close on the heels of JD(S) Supremo Devegowda saying that Siddaramaiah has worked clandestinely to topple the Congress-JD(S) government at the state, Siddramaiah, in a press meet, on Friday spoke his heart out and held HDD’s sons responsible for the fall of the government.
“The government did not fall because of me. It was HD Kumaraswamy and Revanna-sons of HD Devegowda who are the reasons behind the collapse of the state government. This is not my opinion, this is the opinion of all the MLAs of the coalition. If the Congress and the JDS had taken the MLAs into confidence, then the state of the coalition would have been very different,” said the former CM adding that the failure of Kumaraswamy to take the MLAs into confidence led to the collapse of the government.
Stating that there is a need to clarify all the allegations levelled against him by the JDS Supremo, Siddaramaiah said that all the allegations are baseless, far from the truth and are conveying a sense of negative message to the people.
“I am someone who believes in secular principles and with the communal party in power, all secular parties have to join hands and fight against the communal forces. At this point in time HDD is saying that the coalition fell because of me. He says that I was unable to accept HDK as the CM and I nurtured hatred towards him and his family. These are his opinion and I’ve got nothing to do with it. With 80 members at hand, when the Congress high command decided to support the JDS, which had a strength of only 37 MLAs, I agreed without objecting to it. For 14 months I have co-operated in all possible ways to keep the coalition government alive. I became the Co-ordination Committee President. Parameshwa and Venugopal from the Congress and HDK and Danish Ali from JDS were the members. The JD(S) members would attend the meeting, but would never implement the decisions. I did all it took to save the government,” he said striking down the claims of HDD.
Continuing his attack, Siddaramaiah said that HDD feels that he placed all possible strategies to become the leader of the opposition. Refuting this claim, he said, “I have never seen any leader topple the government to become the opposition leader. It is ironical and ridiculous. I do not know if HDD has seen a leader like that. I have never been after power. HDD snatched away my opportunity as a minister once and as a DCM once. Finally, they rooted me out of the party. Come what may, I will never play the dirty politics of toppling a government. It is their birth trait and not mine,” he said adding that the communal BJP came to power for the first time in Karnataka due to Devegowda and sons!
Venting out his anger further, Siddaramaiah said that Devegowda has never nurtured anyone politically. “He has only helped his sons and grandchildren to grow. He has not allowed anyone else to grow-neither from his community nor from his own party,” he said stating that all the allegations levelled against him by the JDS chief are imaginary and politically motivated.
