“In today’s Congress government, Siddaramaiah has no control over his cabinet.”
New Delhi:
Former Karnataka Chief Minister and Secular BJP leader HD Kumaraswamy launched a scathing attack on Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and said that the latter does not support any political party and is only loyal to his chairman.
Kumaraswamy, who is contesting from Mandya Lok Sabha constituency, said in an exclusive interview with ANI that the Karnataka CM has no control over his cabinet.
“In today’s Congress government, Siddaramaiah has no control over his cabinet. After the 2024 election results, Siddaramaiah will take whatever decision he wants to continue as chief minister. We understand his Character. He is a product of the BJP. He is not loyal to any party but his chairman. We have nothing against Siddaramaiah but we are only criticizing him politically and he has developed his political power through our party. , but he always said he wanted to end JD(S),” said.
Recalling his experience of working with the BJP and the Congress, the JD(S) leader said working with the two parties was a sweet yet painful experience.
“I have had good and bad experiences with the Congress and the BJP in alliance before. From 2004 to 2006, we supported the Congress and sometimes, people rejected the Congress. Their party got 62 seats while ours 58 seats were won. Since the Congress is running the central government, they have said that they will not give the chief minister’s post to the JD(S) and ultimately we will work together to avoid the BJP coming to power,” said HD Kumaraswamy.
He also recalled the way Congress treated him after coming to power in 2004 as a “bad experience.”
“My father wanted to fight fresh elections by giving support to the Congress party JD(S). He also met Sonia Gandhi. At that time, friends of the BJP asked us and even our MLAs asked me There was pressure on me to form a new government and I formed an alliance with them (BJP) and we formed a good government with the BJP and it was a good experience but after 20 months we decided to hand over Power. To Yediyurappa, some people in our party have mischievously undermined the alliance,” he added.
“In 2018, friends of the Congress openly criticized us during the elections and said that the JD(S) was the b-team of the BJP. But at that time we were fighting against both the BJP and the Congress,” Kumaras Wami added.
The JD(S) leader further mentioned that during the 2018 assembly elections, Congress leaders approached former Prime Minister Dev Gowda and asked to form the government.
“In the 2018 elections, the people of Karnataka rejected the Congress government. At that time, Congress friends Ghulam Nabi Azad and Ashok from Delhi Ashok Gehlot approached Deve Gowda and asked to form the government with them. Gowda Ji said you can choose Mallikarjun Hag, Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar as the chief minister, as my son is sick, the country The leaders of the major parties also said at the time that they had decided to hand over the chief ministership to our party.”
He also recalled that after the swearing-in ceremony, Congress began to make conditions for not cooperating with him to do a good job.
“But after the oath-taking ceremony, they started putting conditions on ministerial posts and cabinet levels. They did not do a good job in cooperation with me. Whatever plans they announced in the previous government, they wanted to continue them. Siddaramaiah on this Not happy.” On the first day, he even announced to his followers that he would remove the government after the parliamentary elections. ” Kumaraswamy told ANI.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
