Mysuru: Former chief minister and CLP leader Siddaramaiah accepted the general election mandate and welcomed it saying it’s a “people’s mandate”, here on Thursday, May 23.
Speaking to media, he said, “We welcome the mandate and we have to bow down to the people’s decision. People have given complete majority to the Bharatiya Janata Party. The party alone is leading with 300 seats.”
When asked whether the Congress and Janata Dal (S) workers had voted in favour of BJP, he said, “There are no such incidents reported but yes, there were some confusion.”
Speaking on his next move, he said, “We all will sit together and assess the situation. We will soon take a call on the further steps to be taken.”
Regarding the humiliating defeat of senior leaders like Mallikarjun Kharge, K H Muniappa and H D Deve Gowda, he said, “First of all there is no junior and senior. Losing is losing. It’s people’s mandate and we cannot comment about it.”
On whether BJP State President B S Yeddyurappa’s statement of waiting for two more days implied turmoil in the state coalition, he said, “This mandate is to form Central government and it has nothing to do with state. BSY might have said that he would wait and watch for two more days but he cannot do much and he must understand that it is the mandate given to BJP to form a government in the Centre and not peep into the state.”
We have worked obeying party high command, coalition has no credibility: Cheluvarayaswamy
In his first reactions on the mandate, former MLA Cheluvaraswamy said, “Although the mandate has come in favour of BJP and National Democratic Alliance (NDA), in the state, we have heard that the coalition did not work well at the ground level. Earlier, when Shivarame Gowda had contested for Lok Sabha by-polls from Mandya, we had worked shoulder to shoulder obeying the words of party high command to ensure his victory.”
“Even after working so much, the coalition leaders have never appreciated and called us for even one single dinner meet. Moreover, they had also put a hold on the Mandya dairy elections and expelled a Congress leader. All these all decisions were taken without consulting us”, he added.
On bitter relationship between Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy and JDS rebels who had joined Congress he said, “Yes, we had issues with CM HDK. Even though he has said that we weren’t trustworthy, the party high command had directed us to work together and we have done that. We have always maintained a distance from CM HDK.”
