Sidda turns emotional at meet

Outgoing chief minister Siddaramaiah turned emotional at the maiden meeting of the newlyelected Congress party legislators on Wednesday while speaking on the party’s humiliating debacle in the assembly polls even as a section of senior leaders obliquely held him responsible for the disastrous result.

Besides this, a section of MLAs also expressed displeasure over the attempts to form an alliance with the JD(S), but Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad immediately intervened and clarified that the Congress was compelled to forge an alliance to keep opposition unity intact for the 2019 general elections in mind.

A senior leader told DC, “Mr Siddaramaiah was slammed by several senior party MLAs, who obliquely stated that he was solely responsible for the defeat. After hearing them patiently, Mr Siddaramaiah turned emotional and asserted that he did everything that he thought he could have done.

“I felt all the while that I was doing the right thing. My government has not performed badly. Three months before the polls, I undertook extensive rallies to feel the pulse of the people. Nowhere did I witness anti-incumbency. Had it come to my notice, I would have surely acted upon it,” he quoted Mr Siddaramaiah as saying.

SENIOR MLAS said his strategy went wrong, resulting in defeat.

SIDDA INSISTS there was no antiincumbency

The picture of Our Lady of Dolours church at Dahanuin in Thane district in Maharashtra was photoshopped as the Lingayat Catholic Church in Bengaluru and spread on social networks ahead of the Karnataka elections.