Kalaburagi: Former CM Siddaramaiah on Friday rubbished claims by the BJP that 20 legislators from the coalition parties would defect to it following the announcement of the Lok Sabha election results.
“These shameless BJP fellows, whose tenure saw change of three Chief Ministers, are repeatedly saying that 20 legislators will join them after the LS polls results. But where will they get them from?” he asked, speaking to reporters here.
When it was pointed out that there were some unhappy legislators in both the Congress and JD(S), Mr Siddaramaiah at first denied there were any in his party, but later admitted that it was was common for all parties to have some legislators that were not happy with the way they were run. "But should such unhappy legislators be bought by another party? From where will the BJP get the money to buy these legislators? It's proved from the audio-tapes that it is trying to buy them," he charged.
Sharply reacting to BJP state chief, B S Yeddyurappa's claim that the BJP would form the government after May 23 in the state as its numbers would increase following its victories in both the May 19 bypolls, he said, "Mr Yeddyurappa is a big liar and is power hungry. How can he become CM again when he doesn't have 114 MLAs? Even if he does a somersault, the BJP will not win the by-elections," he asserted.
When his attention was drawn to senior BJP leader K S Eshwarappa's statement that he would never become CM again as only a couple of legislators loyal to him wanted him back, Mr Siddaramaiah shot back, "Does he know that I was CM for five years? Whether I become CM again or not is a different issue. Is he not ashamed of making such statements?”
