Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has alleged that the Bharatiya Janata Party was trying to exert pressure on Energy Minister D.K. Shivakumar to join their party by way of getting I-T raids conducted on his family and friends.
Speaking to presspersons during a stopover in Hubballi Airport, he said that as Mr. Shivakumar was born Congressman, he would not yield to such pressure tactics from the BJP.
Regarding reports about Mr. Shivakumar being promised the post of Deputy Chief Minister for switching sides, the Chief Minister said there was no such Constitutional post but a political post created to satisfy political leaders.
He said several BJP leaders were in touch with Congress leaders to join the party. “We are ready to accommodate BJP leaders. But we are checking whether they have RSS background. We will not take BJP leaders with RSS background because such leaders are communal,” he said.
Terming demonetisation as total failure, he said the exercise which put people to hardship had failed to make any impact on black money, corruption, terrorism and fake currency. “The Prime Minister had mentioned these four objectives for his decision and even after a year, there has been no impact. That is why we observed black day,” he said.
Lambasting the BJP leaders for opposing Tipu Jayanti, the Chief Minister described BJP leaders Jagadish Shettar and B.S. Yeddyurappa as double tongued.
“Previously, they have praised Tipu Sultan and taken part in his birth anniversary celebrations. As Chief Minister, Mr. Shettar even wrote the foreword for a book on Tipu Sultan. But now they are opposing it for political reasons” he said.
Lingayat row
On the Lingayat row, Mr. Siddaramaiah said he would not like to get involved in the controversy but clarified that the State government had the authority to make recommendations to the Centre, which decided on such matters.