Bengaluru: Having completed four years in office and basking in the victory of his party in the two recent bypolls to Nanjangud and Gundlupet, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah appeared in no mood on Friday to entertain the recent chargesheet released by the Bharatiya Janata Party against his government.
Speaking to reporters here, he called it baseless and politically motivated. “Who can file a chargesheet against us? These are a list of baseless allegations. Several BJP leaders, including its state president, B S Yeddyurappa are themselves facing charges in various courts. But none of the Congress leaders are in such a predicament,” he noted.
Taking a dig at the Bharatiya Janata Party for calling the byelection results an indicator of things to come in 2018, he claimed that after its humiliating defeat in both constituencies, it was now desperate and stooping to making baseless charges against his government. “Mr Yeddyurappa and Mr Shettar are trained in telling lies,” he added caustically.
While he asserted in response to a question that the Congress would return to power in the 2018 elections, Mr Siddaramaiah was unwilling to commit on whether he would be Chief Minister again, saying it was upto the party high command to decide. When reminded of his earlier statement that he would be the next Chief Minister, he claimed he had said this in a different context.
“Someone said that I should continue as Chief Minister and I replied that I would. But it is the legislature party that elects the Chief Minister and this has to be endorsed by the party high
command,” he added. Visibly irritated when his attention was drawn to a survey that called Karnataka the most corrupt state in the country, he shot back, “How can the views of 6,000 people in a state with a six crore population become the voice of everyone? Besides the survey was done by an organization sponsored by Prime Minister, Narendra Modi and lacks credibility.”
When it was pointed out that Centre for Media Studies was a reputed organisation, Mr Siddaramaiah said the report was released by a member of Niti Ayoga and the survey was done at his behest.
Referring to the Bharatiya Janata Party’s allegation that his government had not taken off and was pro-Ahinda, the Chief Minister said that while he was keen on programmes for the poor, they were not confined to any particular caste.
“Mr Shettar alleges that our government is anti-GLB (Gowdas, Lingayats and Brahmins). But our programmes reach the poor from all castes,” he said, adding that although the BJP’s slogan was “ sab ka sath, sab ka vikas,” it made no mention of Christians and Muslims.“How can that be sab ka vikas then?'” he asked pointedly.
As for Mr Yeddyurappa’s demand for waiver of farmers loans he recalled that when he was Chief Minister he had flatly refused to waive them. “He has not brought up the issue even once in parliament,” he regretted.
In perhaps an indication of things to come, the Chief Minister did not say a word against the Janata Dal (Secular), although he did not spare even former Chief Minister, S M Krishna, who joined the Bharatiya Janata Party before the Nanjangud and Chamarajnagar byelections.
