I know pain of running coalition, K’taka CM breaks down

Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy became emotional and broke down in a function organised by his JDs party workers in Bengaluru after he became the Chief Minister. Kumaranna, as he is known in the political circles, expressed his anguish while sharing the difficulties of coalition politics. He somehow felt at the meeting in his expression and said the coalition government was losing the support of the people of the State.

He said refusing to accept garlands and bouquet “You are standing with bouquets to wish me, as one of your brothers has become the chief minister, and you all are happy, but I’m not. I know the pain of running a coalition Government. I became like Lord Vishakanta (Shiva)   and swallowed the pain of this Government.”

After his oath ceremony in May, He had said that he was not taking the post “happily”, as he did not receive the complete trust of the people. “I have not become Chief Minister today happily. I have pain. I had placed several issues in front of people during election feeling that they will trust me, but people of the State have not shown trust in me,” he said.

This incident of Kumaraswamy becoming teary and breaking down talking about the pain of the coalition Government has a political churning in the State .  Many disgruntled Congress leaders are murmuring about the political alignment with the JDs with just 34 seats and they feel it was a blunder by the party.

Kumaraswamy who is running a fragile coalition with the Congress has been pressurised at every moment and former chief minister Siddaramaiah has been very vocal in attacking Kumaraswamy which has given feathers to the dissidence in the party. 

Ties between the coalition partners have been strained as the Congress and JD(S) are trying to establishing distinct identities in Karnataka.  He said “Chief minister’s post is not a bed of roses, it’s a bed of thorns,” . If the pressure gets to me, I’ll have no hesitation in resigning in less than a couple of hours. I’m not after power. I was only interested in becoming the Chief Minister to save our farmers from debt trap.” Explaining his difficulty in running the government, Kumaraswamy said he has to work with its coalition partner Congress, fend off the Opposition BJP and also tend to the aspirations of his own MLAs. In the Karnataka Budget Kumaraswamy unveiled earlier in July, which the Congress was against (Siddaramaiah), the Chief Minister announced a farm loan waiver, while continuing with policies proposed by the previous Siddaramaiah-led Government. The continues pressure from the congress was evident in his outburst and certainly it has political repercussion.

His expression and teary statement was meant to the coalition partner Congress rather than the opposition BJP which won 104 seats in the assembly elections.

The alliance between Janata Dal Secular and the Congress, where the larger party chose to take a backseat to keep the BJP out of power in the state, was seen as a model for the anti-BJP front ahead of the 2019 general elections.

However Congress played down his emotional outburst and referred this to coalition compulsions. Congress leader and Deputy Chief Minister G  Parameshwara, however, played down the matter. “How can he say that? He must be definitely happy, CM has to be always happy, if he’s happy we’ll all be happy,” he said.

“You have to face problems. Simply expressing won’t give good message to people who supported secular parties. Kumaraswamy should be courageous to face such circumstances,” Senior Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge said.