Siddaramaiah calls Gowda’s remarks ‘politically motivated’
BENGALURU: Hitting back at HD Deve Gowda, former chief minister Siddaramaiah on Friday dismissed as “baseless” and “politically motivated” the JDS patriarch’s allegation that he was responsible for the collapse of coalition government headed by HD Kumaraswamy in Karnataka.
Siddaramaiah said Gowda was hurling such charges out of “political hatred” and to project him as “anti-Vokkaliga” with an intention to weaken the Congress in old Mysuru region.
Holding Gowda and his son Kumaraswamy squarely responsible for the coalition government’s fall last month, he challenged them to show at least one instance of his “interference” in governance. “Deve Gowda has made some allegations against me, they are all baseless, politically motivated and false,” Siddaramaiah told reporters here.
Gowda in the last couple of days has repeatedly blamed Siddaramaiah for the exit of the coalition government.
On Thursday, he had said the Congress high command decided to make Kumaraswamy the chief minister without consulting Siddaramaiah and the latter could not digest it.
Seeking to turn the tables, Siddaramaiah, who was the coordination committee head of the coalition, said it was the ‘unilateral’ style of administration that led to collapse of the government, adding Congress had made all attempts to save the ministry till the last minute. “I did not want BJP to come to power, so when Congress leaders from Delhi said the high command has decided that despite having 80 MLAs we should support the JD(S) with 37 MLAs. I accepted it without opposing it,” he said.
On the other hand, the “truth is” Kumaraswamy, his brother and the then minister HD Revanna and Deve Gowda were responsible, he said claiming that unilateral decisions and not taking MLAs and ministers into confidence were the primary reasons that led to the fall.