Bengaluru: Former Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Saturday said he would not contest the next Lok Sabha polls.
"..I have said that I will not contest for Parliament, I will not contest," Siddaramaiah told reporters in Bengaluru.
After Siddaramaiah's recent induction into the congress working committee, speculation has been rife that he may be considering contesting the Lok Sabha polls.
Siddaramaiah, who currently holds the post of congress Legislature party leader and the head of Congress-JD(S) coalition coordination committee, had contested the May 12 assembly polls from two constituencies.
He won from Badami but lost from his home turf Chamundeshwari in Mysuru. Ahead of assembly elections, Siddaramaiah had announced that it was "most likely" to be his last election.
Earlier, addressing party office-bearers, district congress committee heads at a meeting, organised by the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee, he urged party men to "recharge" themselves to face the Lok Sabha polls. He said though there were strong expectations that the party will retain power in the assembly polls, he said "we lost due to false campaign by the BJP."
"Let's prepare ourselves for the Lok Sabha polls, defeating BJP in that election should be our only target," he was quoted as saying by his office in a statement.
The former chief minister also hit out the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre and targeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi "for not fulfilling the promises made to people."
"The prime minister is like a "drama artiste... what people need is 'Kaam ki Baat' and not 'Mann ki Baat'," he added.
