Bengaluru: A section of Congress leaders believe that former chief minister Siddaramaiah has lost his sway over “Siddu for CM” campaign on the eve of announcement of results of Lok Sabha polls held last month.
The coalition government's foundation was weakened even before CM Kumaraswamy presented the budget in July 2018. “Since then, the same set of eight MLAs including former minister Ramesh Jarkiholi, B. Nagendra, Narayan Rao, Pratapgouda Patil, Seemanth Patil and Basanagouda Daddal's name figure prominently whenever complaints about 'Operation Lotus' crop up,” a senior Congress leader told DC.
Even before the first budget of the coalition government was tabled, a video clip featuring Mr Siddaramaiah purportedly telling an young man that this government would not survive after LS polls in 2019. “All the developments since then have been noted down by his rivals in the party as well as in JD(S). Almost waiting for a year, JD(S) patriarch, H. D. Deve Gowda, has made use of Chincholi by-elections to drive a wedge between Mr Siddarmaiah's painstakingly built AHINDA vote bank, by making his son and CM H. D. Kumarswamy to prop up Congress party's dalit face, M. Mallikarjun Kharge, saying that he should have been CM long time ago. BY saying this, the family trying to fight back with full force would prove counterproductive for Siddaramaiah. The main idea behind this is to recall every incident to state that how Mr Siddaramaiah thwarted chances of dalit leaders in the Congress. Be it the DCM, Dr Parameshwar who was constantly denied DCM post, when Mr Siddarmaiah was CM, at the same time they also want send a loud signal that even Mr Kharge was denied CM's post. Besides this. Then RDPR minister and another prominent Dalit leader, Srinvasaprasad were dropped from the cabinet unceremoniously.
All these things may sound out of reach for Mr Siddaramaiah recent Tweet that Mr Revanna too was capable of becoming CM, might just serve their (JDS) purpose of portraying him as anti-dalit,” the source said and added that apart from this the JD(S) believes that the UPA coming back to power and this will bring Siddu again clamour to an end.
